Reversal
by Flyvarna
Summary: AU. Who would want to follow Kouji Minamoto, the class bookworm? That was how it began.
1. Chapter 1

Reversal

_I do not own Digimon, nor any other franchise I may accidentally mention. Enjoy!_

Chapter 1

I had the bizarre feeling that someone was following me.

It wasn't like I was in a deserted place. I was on a busy street full of people in the middle of the afternoon, on a bright spring day. Besides, I wasn't the type of person who went out of his way to attract attention. I kept to myself, usually burying myself in a book. People didn't bother me when I was reading. That was how I liked it.

So, why did I feel like someone was following me? Why would _anyone _want to follow Kouji Minamoto, the class bookworm?

They were probably some students from my school, hoping to play some kind of prank on me. I had been the victim of several pranks, but none in the past few months. I increased my pace, hoping my pursuer, or pursuers, would take the hint and leave me _alone_...

"Kouji!"

An unfamiliar male voice, most likely the one who was following me. If he called me by name then it the polite thing to do was respond. It wasn't like he'd actually _done _anything yet, and if he did there were a lot of people around to witness it. I reluctantly slowed down and let him approach me, shifting my gaze to the ground as I did.

Footsteps approached from behind, then moved around to my front. I could see that the boy was a kid around my age, wearing faded jeans and slightly battered white sneakers but I didn't look at his face. Eye contact isn't something I'm good at.

"Wow, Grandma was right!" The boy said. "You really _do _look like me."

I looked like him? What did he mean by _that_? I warily looked up at him, past the gray shirt, but as I did any rational thoughts I had completely left me.

He looked like me.

I'm not saying that he bore a faint resemblance, we looked almost _exactly _alike. Same face, same dark hair, same blue eyes. There were differences, though. His hair was much shorter than mine, barely peeking out from the blue baseball hat he wore. Mine wasn't quite long enough to touch my shoulders at its' longest. There were other differences, too. His skin was tan, probably from spending time out in the sun. While I wasn't exactly pale, I tended to spend a lot of time inside, reading. The eyes were bright and confident, while it took me a lot of courage just to look anyone else in the eyes. A sharp grin covered his face, while the best I could do under any circumstances was a shy smile.

"Wait 'til Mom sees you," he said enthusiastically. "She'll be so happy..."

I finally managed to find my voice.

"Who are you? Why do you look so much like me?"

The boy's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"Oh, guess Dad didn't tell you about me? Sorry, I got a bit carried away there. I'm Kouichi Kimura, I'm your twin brother."

It felt like the earth had suddenly opened up and swallowed me. At that point I wouldn't have minded that happening. It felt like some kind of sick joke. A twin brother? Had I fallen into one of my own fantasy books, where things like this actually happened? I wanted to deny it, but my tongue wouldn't work. He looked so much like me...But, how was this possible?

"When Mom and Dad divorced, they split us up too." Kouichi continued, oblivious to my shock. Mom and Dad...Divorced? Wait, Mom was _alive_?

"I went with Mom, you went with Dad..."

"Hold on," I held up a hand to silence him. "Are you trying to tell me that...That my mother's _still alive?"_

My mother had, according to Dad, died in a car accident when I was two. While I had felt sorry that I had never known her, the truth was that I had long since moved on. Dad's current wife Satomi was a good person who might not be my real mother, but she was just as wonderful a person who I cared for like she _was _my mother.

"Well, yeah." Kouichi's face showed confusion for a moment. Then as comprehension set in it quickly replaced by sheer fury.

"He told you she was _dead_? _That miserable coward!_ First he abandons Mom, then..._Ugh_!"

He took a deep breath and calmed down a little.

"Look, Mom's still alive. I want you to come meet her. She'll be getting out of work soon...You're not busy, are you?"

I froze.

"C'mon, let's go meet her." Kouichi turned to go, only to realize I wasn't following him. "Kouji?"

I took a step backwards, then another. Then turned and ran, not stopping until I reached home.

I didn't quite slam the door behind me, then turned to lean on it as I got my breath back. It took a minute for my racing heart and scattered thoughts to calm down. Kouichi probably wouldn't follow me home...If he'd taken the time to follow _me _rather than Dad or Satomi, chances were good that he didn't want to talk to either of them. In fact, given his reaction when he'd found out that I was told Mom was dead, he most likely blamed Dad for everything. So he wouldn't take the chance that I might be the only one home...Which I wasn't. Satomi was in her workroom working on some computer programming. So I was _safe_...

"Safe." From the brother who wanted me to meet my mother...I sighed. I really was a coward, wasn't I? I headed upstairs to my room before Satomi could find me.

Chibi, my pet canary, squeaked a protest as I walked in and closed the door behind me and slumped down in my bed, leaning my face into the pillow. What could I do? Was he telling the truth about being my brother? Probably. What reason would he have to lie to a complete stranger like me? And his name was Kou_ichi_. "First Light." I had always wondered why my name was written as "Second Light." The one time I had asked Dad why my name was written that way, he'd said I was named after my grandfather on my mother's side...But if he'd lied about Mom being dead, chances were he'd lied about me being named after my grandfather, too. And then there was the fact that the boy looked so much like me. If it weren't for his shorter hair, tanner skin, and different personality, we would have been identical.

I buried my face into my pillow. My family...What could I tell Dad? It wasn't like I could ask him about this boy who looked so much like me and claimed to be my brother. It was an awkward subject, even if I _could _dig up the nerve to talk to him about anything. Besides, what was I supposed to say? "Hey Dad, there a strange boy outside who says that he's my brother and Mom's still alive." No, that wouldn't work.

I couldn't tell my stepmother, either. I didn't want her to worry about me...And if I told her about Kouichi, she would get angry at Dad for not telling me, which would wind up with them arguing. That was the _last _thing I wanted to happen.

That just brought me back to my original question. What _could _I do? It wasn't that I didn't want to meet my mother, but it felt like a betrayal. Betraying what I couldn't say. Satomi, Dad...Maybe even _myself_. But if I _didn't _go see my real mother, wouldn't that be betraying her and Kouichi?

Chibi started singing, a pleasant warble that drew my gaze from the pillow underneath me to his cage. He was a gift from Dad on my last birthday, an unexpectedly drab brown and streaky bird whose loud singing, far louder than any of the other canaries, had caught my ear in the pet store. He was completely content with his cage, didn't like being disturbed by any others even if it was with good intentions like to feed him or clean his cage. He knew there was a big wide world out there, he just didn't want to go out and see it.

Maybe a bit _too _much like me.

I turned to look beyond Chibi, to the rotating frame displaying the picture Dad had taken of the three of us last month. Satomi had her arms around me as we smiled for the camera. On the other side of the frame was a picture of my mother...My _real _mother. I buried my head back into the pillow. I couldn't talk to her or Kouichi, I couldn't talk to Dad or Satomi...

What could I _do_?

"Kouji, is something wrong?" Satomi asked at dinner that night. "You hardly touched your food."

"I'm all right," I lied. "I'm just not hungry tonight."

"Are you sure you're not sick?" Satomi gently brushed a cool hand against my forehead.

"I'm not sick, Mom." I had promised my father when they had first married that I would call her "_Mom_." That didn't stop me from thinking of her as _Satomi_, instead of "_Mom_." And to make it more complicated, what was I supposed to call her now that I knew my real mother was still alive? I tried to summon a smile at the concerned expression on her face, in spite of my stomach roiling from having to lie to her.

"Maybe you're right." She took her hand off my forehead. "You don't _feel _sick."

"He's all right," Dad said. "If he's not hungry, he's not hungry. Right, Kouji?"

I could only nod.

"I hear your school's got tryouts for the Go team next week." I flinched. It was all I could do to interact with others on a daily basis, but to actually talk to my fellow students?

"Dad, I _told _you I'm not interested."

"You like Go, don't you?"

"I'm not _that _good at it."

"Kouji, I'm not forcing you to do it...I'm just saying that you might like it, and it might make you a better player."

"No, thank you." I glared down at my food and irritably took a big bite, hoping Dad would take the hint and leave me alone. Not that he ever did...It seemed every time we talked he would try and get me involved in something. Go this week, the week before that had been the book club. The week before _that _it had been the school play. Honestly, it drove me crazy.

"Anyways, I made reservations for dinner at that ritzy American restaurant for Saturday..." Dad was talking about his anniversary with Satomi, which was coming up in two days. I was planning on getting flowers for her, even if Dad hadn't given me the money to do it. Had it only been three years since they had married? It felt like a lifetime.

The next day I had scarcely left home for the library when I saw Kouichi heading for me. He fell into step beside me before I could object.

"Look, I'm sorry about yesterday. I forgot Dad didn't tell you anything about me...At least I had a few days to get over the shock."

I ignored him.

"Maybe we can start over again? Exchange phone numbers or something?" He pulled a battered phone out of his pocket and held it up suggestively. I kept my eyes firmly on the sidewalk in front of me. If I didn't talk to him, he would just go away. It worked with my classmates, there was no reason that it wouldn't work with my brother.

"C'mon, I'm your brother aren't I? We're family, we're _supposed _to talk to one another."

I stifled a sigh and stopped.

"Listen, I know you're pretty into this whole family thing, but I'm hardly the only one in my family. If you want to find someone to talk to, you should talk to Dad or my stepmother, not me."

His eyes darkened. "Don't bring that _liar _into this. He's the one that kept us apart."

"Oh, really? Where were _you _all these years? How come you only just showed up _now_? I don't recall Dad _forcing _you to stay away from me."

He stopped short, eyes blazing.

"I was just trying to follow my grandmother's last wishes and find my brother because I was hoping that could make my mother happy, all _right_?"

I stared at him.

"_That's all_? 'Find my brother and make Mom happy?' Nothing in that sentence about what the _brother _thinks, nothing about _his _family...Just 'Make _Mom _happy.' You aren't gonna get your happy ending by just making Mom happy, Kouichi."

"Well, how would _you _do it, genius? Bring Dad into it? Put Mom through even _more _pain?"

I stiffened. How could I bring Dad into it when I couldn't even _talk _to him? I turned back to the sidewalk and kept walking. The library wasn't very far...I could bury myself in a book and Kouichi would get bored and walk off without asking me any other questions I didn't know how to answer.

"Where are you going?" Kouichi yelled behind me. "You really _are _a coward, aren't you?"

"Maybe I am a coward, but at least I admit I am..." I stopped and glared at him. "_You _can't even talk about your own father without blaming him for everything that happened. Not everything is _Dad's _fault, you know."

And I turned and headed for the library. Kouichi didn't follow me inside.

The next day, Dad and Satomi's anniversary, started out normally for me. I had to return some books to the library, so I bundled them all into my backpack and stepped out. This time I peered around the wall which surrounded our yard. Sure enough, Kouichi leaned against a nearby telephone pole out of sight from the windows, obviously waiting for me to come out. I groaned. Brother or not, this was going a bit too far...I turned went back inside. Maybe if I waited long enough he'd get bored and go home.

My library plans were set back for several hours, and by the time Kouichi had wandered off, it was late afternoon. I managed to make it to the library before it closed, and took some more books out in addition to bringing the old ones back. Then it was off to a floral shop to get some flowers for Satomi. I paused outside the shop, trying to remember how much money Dad had given me when I felt a hand descend onto my shoulder.

"You're not gonna get rid of me _that _easily, little brother."

I stiffened. How had Kouichi found me? He was the _last _person I wanted to deal with at that moment.

"Look, we can't just keep avoiding each other," Kouichi continued. "I know this whole brother thing is a big shock for you...But you deserve to meet Mom more than anyone I know."

"What about Dad?" I turned to look at him. "What about my stepmother? Doesn't _she _deserve to meet you, even if Dad doesn't?"

He blinked, then suddenly stopped looking at me.

"That can wait until after you meet Mom."

I sighed. "Kouichi, you don't get it! Our family isn't just you, me, and Mom. It's Dad and Satomi, too..."

"Yeah? Have you even _told _them about me?"

I hesitated. The truth was that I _couldn't_.

"You haven't told them. And you have the nerve to tell me I deserve to meet them..."

My gaze hit the ground under me. I couldn't tell them. I couldn't visit Kouichi's mother. I couldn't make up my mind. What did I _want_?

The jangling tone of my cell phone reached my ears. I picked it up, looking at what looked like a text message of some sort. That was unusual. I didn't know too many people who sent me texts. Then again, I didn't give my phone number out to too many people. It wasn't much of a message, either. "_Do you want to start_," followed by "_yes_" or "_no_" options.

"Kouji Minamoto." An unfamiliar female voice. "This is a game to decide your future."

"My..." Who was this? _What _was this? How did she know my name?

"What is _that_?" Kouichi leaned over me so he could see. "Is this some kind of a joke?

I normally didn't bother with these types of things...It probably _was_ some kind of a joke, anyway. But it was a distraction from Kouichi and my family. I reluctantly selected "_yes_."

"Please go to the Shibuya station at 6 PM. And then take the elevator to the basement." The voice cut off and my phone went dark. Shibuya? But, Satomi's flowers...I looked at the clock on my phone. I didn't have a lot of time to make it, and it wasn't like I couldn't give her the flowers the next day, she and Dad would probably stay out very late...

I turned and started jogging in the direction of the nearest subway station.

"Wait, you aren't gonna _do _it, are you?" Kouichi was right behind me.

I ignored him.

"Oh, for..." Kouichi kept pace with me. "Wait up!"

"Why should I wait for you? You didn't get that message."

"My phone's off, and even if it were on, I'd still be going with you. Besides, there's a good possibility that it's a prank, or worse...I'm coming with you, little brother."

I wanted to argue with him, but I had a feeling that it would be futile. Besides, at that point I kind of needed my breath for running, not talking. By the time we arrived at the train station, I was panting and leaned against the wall as I dug up money for the ticket.

"I only brought enough money to get myself home..." Kouichi glanced at me. "You got any extra? I kind of need it."

"Maybe you should just go home, then." I found my money and put it into the ticket machine.

"Kouji, I told you I'm coming." He sighed. "Maybe I can get a ride off one of my friends when this is over."

An odd sound made me look up. The lights on the ticket machine were acting rather strangely, lighting up in random places. Still, it spat out my ticket. Just after I pulled it out, a second ticket popped out.

"What the..."

"Huh?" Kouichi peered over my shoulder and pulled the second ticket out. "A ticket? Whaddaya know? Guess I'm _supposed _to go with you...Although we won't be going anywhere if we miss the train."

I swore under my breath and took off for the train, with Kouichi on my heels.

We actually made the train with about thirty seconds to spare. By that point, my lungs were burning and if there was a seat available, I would have taken it. It was just at the point where people were getting out of work however, so there were no empty seats nearby. I slumped against the wall by the door and hoped my breath would come back quickly. Kouichi on the other hand stretched, then turned to me.

"Good little run...You aren't in good shape, are you?"

I glared at him. Maybe not for running, but I did do a lot of walking. I wasn't _that _out of shape.

"I play a lot of soccer, so I'm in great shape." Kouichi said it with a smug smirk. I wished the ticket machine had only given out one ticket.

There was no way of getting away from him on a crowded train, At least, not physically. I pulled my backpack off and grabbed one of the library books out and buried myself in it. Kouichi tried talking to me a bit more, but eventually gave up to pull out his phone and fiddle with it. I couldn't tell if he was sending text messages or seeing if he could get the same message I had however.

Two stops later at Jiyuugaoka, there was another last-second entry. A boy about the same age as Kouichi and myself managed to stagger in about two seconds before the train's door closed. He leaned back against the door with a loud groan of relief, then looked up at us. I sneaked a peek out from behind my book to see Kouichi looking down at him curiously. Good, maybe he could keep my brother busy, so he wouldn't bother me!

It was about this point that phones started going off all around the train. Mine went off too, but it only had the second part of that odd call, in text form this time. The part about taking the elevator to the basement. On the other side of the book I was holding, I heard the boy who had just jumped on yell in frustration.

"Ohhh, that's _impossible_!"

I wondered what he was yelling about. As I turned to look at him, I found myself locking eyes with Kouichi. My brother cracked a grin, no doubt at the boy's expense. I simply went back to my book. After all, it was hardly any of my business.

The train pulled into Shibuya not too long after that. I briskly stepped off the train, dodging around the other boy. Kouichi followed me off the train as I looked for the elevator.

"You really don't have to do this, you know." Kouichi said. "There's still time to catch the train back home before Mom gets back from work..."

He clearly wasn't taking the hint. I wasn't ready to meet Mom yet, nor was I ready to tell Dad and Satomi about him. I just wanted to be left _alone_.

The elevator opened and I stepped in. Kouichi joined me, but as I pressed the button and the doors closed there was a sudden yell, and at the last second before the doors fully closed a boy came leaping through, knocking Kouichi to the floor.

"Ow..." Kouichi groaned. "Get off me!"

"Sorry!" The other boy said cheerfully, pulling himself to his feet. I recognized him as that boy who had gotten on the train at the last minute earlier. "Hey, did you guys get that weird message, too?"

"Only the second part," Kouichi glanced at me as he stood up again. "My brother's the one who got it all, I'm just following him."

"You got it, too?" The boy looked at me. I pulled my book out again, with the hope that he would stop talking to me. That was when the elevator suddenly went from a normal elevator crawl to what felt like being shot of a cannon. I was close enough to the elevator's wall that I was flung against it, while Kouichi and the other boy managed to keep their balance.

"Where the heck are we _going_?" The boy yelled. He had a point, I realized. The glass in the back didn't show the familiar metal that usually surrounded an elevator. Instead all I could see was dark stuff. I couldn't say whether that stuff was earth or from an absence of light, but it unnerved me.

The elevator came to an abrupt stop with a very loud _crash_! This time the other boy fell over on to his backside.

"_Oww_..." I heard him exclaim, but my attention wasn't on him, it was on the elevator doors as they slowly opened. Outside, I could see a vast underground train station of some kind. A dozen or so trains waited on tracks which radiated out into tunnels, while a larger number of kids went in and out of them. How big _was _this place, I wondered. And more importantly, what was it _for_?

"This is...Is this the reason everyone was called?" The other boy asked from behind me.

"It's time to decide." The female voice from earlier said over my phone. I hadn't heard it ring...I picked it up to see an unfamiliar symbol on the screen. "Will you go, or turn back?"

Should I go? True, I had no idea where those trains would take me. I also wanted to get home and read my books...

"Well, here we are." Kouichi stepped up to stand by me. "I wonder what this is all doing here?"

I glared at him. I hadn't wanted him coming with me, I hadn't wanted him coming at _all_. I wasn't ready for a brother, and while I was happy that the woman who had given birth to me was still alive, I was more used to Satomi as my mother. I was running away from the problem and I knew it, but at that time I was desparate to get away from Kouichi. I turned and headed for the only train I could see which didn't seem to have people on it. I could hear Kouichi behind me calling my name, but I really didn't care.

The train was quiet. The first real peace I'd had since leaving the library. I sat down on the plush seat and put my face in my hands. I couldn't run away forever. What was I supposed to _do_?

I pulled my backpack off, then lay back on the seat and looked up at the ceiling. Kouichi was so eager for me to meet his mother...And what did I do? Took off at the first chance. I really _was _a coward.

"Kouji?" Kouichi's face appeared in my field of vision. "You okay?"

I closed my eyes. I felt the seat sinking down by my head and realized that he'd sat down.

"Look, I...I'm sorry I'm putting you through this. I'm not very good at this 'brother' thing, am I?"

I didn't know how to respond. And wasn't that the problem? I couldn't do _anything_.

"I want to be your brother, but I don't know how." Kouichi's weight shifted a little, probably leaning back against the seat. "All I really know about you is that you like books...What do I have to do to make you happy?"

"I don't know." I whispered as the train's doors closed and it started to move. "I want to be your brother, too...I want to make my parents happy...I want to be left alone...I...I don't know _what _I want."

I felt his hand on my shoulder.

"Let's just take this one step at a time, okay? Maybe we _both _need some time to get to know one another."

I opened my eyes and looked at him. Kouichi was looking down at me with that sharp, confident grin. Completely the opposite of me...In fact, the kind of person I'd avoid if he wasn't my brother. But he was, wasn't he? And he was at least trying, which was more than I would have done, if the situation were reversed and _I _was the one who had to tell _him _I was his brother, and his mother was still alive...

"It'll take a lot of time..." I closed my eyes again. "Nobody said this would be easy. I'm not good at talking to people, and my reaction to anyone trying to talk to me is to grab the nearest book and start reading."

"Yeah, I noticed. Not that that's a bad thing or anything."

My eyes opened again. Was he _complimenting _me?

"If you read books a lot, you probably know lots of stuff. I never had the patience for anything besides comic books myself." Kouichi adjusted his hat slightly. "And being quiet means you're a good listener. At least, that's what Mom says. I'm pretty bad at that sort of thing."

I felt myself blushing a little. "I can listen, at least. If they have anything worth listening to...That's a different thing."

He laughed. "Good point."

We were both silent for a minute.

"I wonder where the train's going?" Kouichi finally asked.

"Don't know..." I sat up to look out the window. All I could see was the tunnel we were going through.

"Well, it doesn't matter, does it?" Kouichi shrugged. "We're together. We're taking the first steps to being a family again...Right?"

I smiled shyly. "Right,"

**Author's Note: Here I go again...I'll make this brief. The AU here is that the twins reversed their birth order, so "our" Kouji is Kouichi, and vice versa. Free imaginary cookies to anyone who figured that out!**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The tunnel seemed to go on forever. Unfortunately, the few lights that were on the train were so dim it was too dark to read. That left reading a book out, even if Kouichi wasn't there. _He _seemed to think I would like to hear about all his sports accomplishments. Not that I didn't care that he played soccer, it was more of the fact that I wasn't _interested _in soccer, therefore didn't care for it in general. Also, there wasn't exactly any way to get away from his chattering...That was what annoyed me the most. The best I could do was look out the window and try to tune him out.

"...And then I won the shootout, and we made it into the second round. Too bad we lost the third one. I would have liked to go toe-to-toe with last year's champions. Then again, they lost, the third round, too." Kouichi shrugged. "I heard their best players got hit with injuries that year, so I suppose I should be surprised they made it that fa..."

Kouichi's words were suddenly cut off by the train lurching. The few lights left in the train went out, and we both went flying into the aisle before the train stabilized itself. I glanced over at Kouichi. Was it just me, or was there something surrounding him for one instant?

Then I noticed a bright light coming from my pocket. That was strange, the only thing I had in my pocket was my cell phone. I pulled it out. Sure enough, my cell phone was glowing. Not just the screen, the entire thing was glowing brighter than I had ever seen it. Even as I watched, it disintegrated into an odd-looking black and gray device that vaguely resembled a cell phone, complete with lit-up screen. I saw that symbol I had seen earlier on the screen.

"This is your Digivice," the female voice I had heard earlier came from some unseen speaker on the thing. "Welcome to the digital world."

"What is this?" Kouichi's voice shook from sheer terror as he stared at the blue and white device he now held in his hand. "_My phone_! My _grandmother _gave me that phone. How can I call my friends now? My Mom is gonna _kill _me..."

Come to think of it, Dad and Satomi would probably be upset that I didn't have my phone anymore. Not that I ever _used _it. I mostly had it for emergencies. In fact, I didn't even turn it on most of the time.

"How do I get this back?" Kouichi was poking at the buttons on the...Digivice, she called it. He was so busy he didn't notice that we had exited the tunnel and were now riding in broad daylight. I got up and moved to the window. There were small jellyfish-like blobs moving through the air. Train tracks hovered in mid-air without any support. I couldn't tell how they did it, but I was glad for it. Below us, I could see a cloudy void surrounded by jagged cliffs. We weren't in Japan anymore...

"Kouichi?"

"C'mon, you stupid thing..._Work_, dangit!"

"Kouichi..."

"What?" I couldn't take my eyes off the sight, but I heard him walk over to where I was. There was a sharp intake of breath.

"What _is _this place? Where are we?"

"The Digital World, apparently."

"The _what_?" I turned to see Kouichi staring at me with an expression of disbelief and horror on his face. "We need to go back. Mom is gonna get back from work soon..."

"Can't do that." A voice boomed from what felt like all around us. "The only place to turn around is the Flame Terminal. We're almost there."

Kouichi stiffened. "Wait a minute, who are you? _Where _are you?" He frantically glanced all around the train trying to find the speaker.

"You're _riding _me, and you don't _know_? Humans...They can't tell the difference between a train and a Trailmon."

Riding him? That train was alive? And talking...

"You've got to be kidding me..." Kouichi's eyes were as big as saucers. "_Trailmon_? The Digital World..."

"Huh?" Did he know where we were?

"There's this card game called Digimon, where you battle each other using these little pets called 'Digital Monsters,' or 'Digimon' for short. It wasn't very popular...I only know it because one of my friends played it once. I didn't see more than a few cards, but all the pets' names ended in 'Mon.'"

He turned to me. "And it makes sense for 'Digital Monsters' to live in a Digital World...I don't think it's just a game anymore."

I nodded. That voice on my phone had called it a game...This was her idea of a _game_? I wondered who she was, and what she wanted with us.

We stood there watching the abandoned cliffs go by for what seemed like an eternity. Neither of us said much, I think the fact that we were in some strange new world had unnerved Kouichi. I was...Well, _scared _wasn't the word I would use. _Cautiously fascinated _would probably describe it better. After all, it was the kind of adventure I normally read about. And with adventures like those came dangers...

Sometimes even _death_.

Then something happened outside. A shimmering, white substance flowed out from a point up ahead, possibly the place where the..._Trailmon _was heading. It spread along the cliffs, engulfing them and settling down, losing the shimmer and turning into more land.

"What...How did that happen?" Kouichi asked.

"Guess someone must have returned the area's Digicode." The Trailmon's voice boomed again.

"Digicode?"

"Everything's made of data here. It can be moved or taken. We call it 'Digicode,'"

"You said someone returned it," I said. "What happened?"

"A Digimon called Cherubimon has taken over. His followers have been stealing Digicode for a long time. I don't know what happened at Flame Terminal, but at a guess I'd say someone scanned the data of one of his followers and returned the data the follower was holding. Now if you don't have any more questions, we'll be arriving at Flame Terminal in a few minutes."

"But..." Kouichi's protest was drowned out by an ear-splitting train whistle, far louder than any I'd ever heard before. I clapped my hands to my ears to drown out the sound. When it finally subsided, I looked for my backpack. Fortunately, it hadn't flown too far when we had arrived. I picked it up and threw it back on my shoulders.

"What are you _doing_?" Kouichi asked incredulously. "We can't leave the trai...Er, _Trailmon_. He's our only ticket back home."

"I'm not. I'm just putting my backpack on in case something happens."

"Good. I was afraid you were going to get lost, or something." He crossed his arms. "Mom is gonna _kill _me when she finds out what happened to my phone..."

Outside, the cliffs going by us turned into an odd-looking city. It looked like it was mostly metal, more specifically giant boilers. It reminded me of those older books I'd read where everything was powered by steam. Was this entire city steam-powered? Probably.

The Trailmon slowed and came to a stop at what looked like a station of some kind. Evidently the Flame Terminal. The doors opened.

"Flame Terminal, final stop. Everybody off," the Trailmon said. I looked out at the metallic platform beyond. It was empty...Nobody there to greet us. I hesitated for a moment, then stepped out the doors.

"Kouji, are you _crazy_?" Kouichi demanded. "We need to stay here."

"The Trailmon said to get off. Besides, I'm curious about the woman who brought us here." Now that I was off the Trailmon, I could see that its' locomotive looked very facelike. Windows that looked more like eyes than windows. A grill that looked like a mouth. An odd-looking lantern hovered on a stalk just over its' head, suggesting hair. I turned back to look at Kouichi. He was still standing in the door with his fists clenched.

"What do you mean by _that_? We have to get home!" He shouted.

"I said, everybody _off_!" There was a sudden burst of steam from behind Kouichi, causing him to yelp and jump away from it, falling off the Trailmon in the process. The doors swiftly closed behind him.

"Looks like we're stuck here for now." I offered Kouichi a hand to his feet.

There was a beeping from the Digivice I was holding in my other hands. It suddenly lit up.

"Search for the Spirits." That female voice again. "We hope that you do not get injured, Kouichi Kimura, Kouji Minamoto."

"How do you know my name?" I glared down at that Digivice, but it only went dark.

"Typical..." Kouichi glared at his own Digivice. "They never answer the questions you _want _answered. Like how do we get home."

I thought about it. True, we needed to get home. I still had to get Satomi flowers, but the Trailmon was clearly not going to let us get on. I had no idea what the voice meant by "Spirits," but there might be other people who could tell us more about this place...

"I'm going to see if there's anyone else around."

Kouichi turned to stare at me. "What? But, we should stay here. That Trailmon's our only ticket home..."

"Who says it's the only one? There were other trains at that station. They were probably Trailmon, too. And there were other kids there, too. Maybe one of them knows how to get back. Maybe we'll find someone who can fix our phones, too.

I took a few steps away from the Trailmon. "You can stay here, you know. I'm not forcing you to come with me."

"Oh no you don't, little brother. I said I was going with you, and I'm going with you." Kouichi pulled off his hat and ran a hand through his hair. "I still think you're crazy, but I keep my promises."

I shrugged. Personally, I'd have been happier if he'd stayed with the Trailmon. I started walking towards the center of the...Could I call it a town? Kouichi followed me, still talking as he did.

"What kind of place _is _this, anyways? The trains talk, there's jellyfish hovering in the air, and some weird lady who can turn phones into weird devices..."

I clenched my teeth. Telling him to be quiet seemed like a good idea, but it wasn't worth it. I wasn't very good at confrontations. Besides, he was my brother. If we were going to be brothers, I might as well at least _try _to stay on his good side.

Until I could get away from him, at least.

We made our way past round buildings, some of which looked like they were built for creatures that were about the same size as the average house cat. As we were going between two of the smaller buildings, I saw two boys, one a bit bigger and probably older than us, the other much younger running by in the direction we had just come from.

"Hey!" Kouichi pushed past me and waved at them. The boys turned, then stopped running. I reluctantly followed my brother out to meet them. I wasn't very good at talking to people, but they seemed to know where they were going. Besides, Kouichi was here to do the talking for me.

"About time we saw other faces here..." Kouichi glanced over at me. "You guys trying to get home, too?"

"We heard there was a Trailmon called Angler at the station," the bigger boy said. "Have you seen him?"

"Angler? We just got here on a Trailmon...I think that might have been it." Kouichi crossed his arms. "We were gonna stay on it until it could bring us home, but it kicked us off and shut the doors behind us."

"You mean we're not gonna get home?" The younger boy asked, his eyes welling up with tears.

"He's still there. I would have talked him into letting us back on, but my brother here decided he wanted to see if there was anyone else here."

"Really?" The boy sniffed and wiped his eyes.

"Hey, would I lie to you? C'mon, let's go. I'm Kouichi, by the way. Kouichi Kimura. This is my twin brother, Kouji."

"Twins?" The bigger boy looked back and forth between the two of us. "That's cool. I never met twins before. I'm Junpei Shibuyama."

"I'm Tomoki Himi." The younger boy said. "Thanks for helping us."

"No problem." Kouichi started walking back towards the Trailmon. "So, did you guys get that weird message, too?"

"Yeah. Well, I did, at least." Junpei glanced at Tomoki, who looked down like it wasn't something he wanted to talk about. "Did your phone change into a...Digivice, too?"

"Sure did." Kouichi held his Digivice up. "And now I can't call anyone because it doesn't have any numbers on it. Any idea what it's supposed to do?"

Junpei and Tomoki looked at each other.

"I think we can use it to turn into Digimon, if we find some sort of weird Spirits." Junpei pulled a blue and yellow Digivice out of his pocket. "We saw another boy do that a few minutes ago."

"Yeah. Takuya was amazing!" Tomoki spread out his arms like he was flying. "He turned into Agnimon and went_ Pow! Bam! _And he scanned that Cerberumon just like _that_!"

"Really?" Kouichi sounded like he was playing along.

"I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it." Junpei had evidently picked up on my brother's skepticism. "It really happened, Takuya found a Spirit, it went into his Digivice, and he used it to turn into a Digimon."

"Is that what it does?" Kouichi looked at his Digivice. I reached into my pocket and felt mine. If what he said was true and it could make a human into a Digimon, did that mean that _I_ could do that too?

A minute later, we were back at the station where the Trailmon..._Angler_, he had called it, was still waiting. There were also about a dozen of those jellyfish-like things I had seen floating around when we had first arrived.

"Hey, can you take us back to the human world?" Junpei asked.

"Please?" Tomoki added.

The Trailmon thought about it for a moment. "No."

"But, we have to get home!" Tomoki was starting to get tears in his eyes again.

"Here, let me try." Kouichi stepped up to face the Trailmon. "You wouldn't want to leave a poor, innocent child stranded in a strange world, with no way to get back to his family, would you?"

"Um..."

"He needs his family, right? He needs to get back to his family. _You're _the only one who can do it. You're his only hope."

"Please?" Tomoki wiped his eyes.

"Maybe this will sweeten the deal." Junpei pulled a bar of chocolate out of his pocket. The Trailmon eyed the chocolate and then opened its mouth and slurped the bar up, causing Junpei to yelp as his hand was covered in saliva in the process.

"That was delicious!" The Trailmon exclaimed. Tomoki and Junpei lit up in anticipation of going home, and Kouichi flashed that sharp grin of his.

"...I'm going to get some more!" The Trailmon suddenly took off. By the time we could react, it was far down the tracks and nearly out of sight.

"He left..." Tomoki said, incredulously.

"What happened to 'you're his only hope?'" Kouichi crossed his arms irritably.

"How are we gonna get home _now_?" Tomoki was back to having tears in his eyes. Was there a faucet behind those eyes?

"Take it easy. There's train tracks there, right? That can't be the only Trailmon. Remember back at Shibuya there were about a dozen of them." Kouichi threw an arm around Tomoki's shoulders. "We just need to stay put and another one will come soon Right?"

Tomoki looked up at him with shining eyes. That was when I saw a bunch of small, gray, ball-like creatures...Most likely more Digimon, bouncing toward us.

"What are those?" I asked, catching the others' attention.

"I don't know, but one of them's the one who told us about Angler." Junpei moved a bit closer to the rest of us as the Digimon bounced closer.

"Hey, human! We want more of that chocolate!" One of them cried.

"Chocolate?" Kouichi looked curiously at Junpei.

"We got one of them to tell us about Angler by giving him chocolate."

The little white jellyfish creatures suddenly started moving away, almost like they _knew _something was about to happen, something that _wasn't _good. I looked at the creatures. They were all smiling a bit _too _innocently, showing mouthfuls of sharp teeth. If they didn't take 'no' for an answer...

"Do you have any more chocolate?" I asked quietly.

"_What_? You want me to give the rest of my chocolate to those things?" Junpei looked shocked at the thought.

"I don't think we have any choice."

"Huh?"

"Do those look like completely harmless innocents to you? I have a feeling that if we refuse they'll attack us. I don't want to get bit by one of them, let alone a whole bunch."

Junpei's eyes went wide as he realized that even a creature the size of a soccer ball could do damage. Especially if they traveled in _packs_...Tomoki shuddered and ducked behind Junpei.

"What's the hold-up? We want that chocolate!" The creatures began bouncing up and down.

"It's coming right up, we just need to get all of it for you." Kouichi said in a louder voice as Junpei began digging through his pockets and took out a couple more bars of chocolate. In a whisper, Kouichi added "The instant you throw those things at them, we run. Got it?"

We all nodded. Junpei opened the chocolate bars. The sight of the chocolate sent the creatures bouncing up and down in eager anticipation. Then Junpei threw the bars at them, and we all ran as an instant feeding frenzy started. Back down the metallic streets and around several buildings before slowing down.

"Do you think we lost them?" Tomoki asked.

"Don't know." Junpei gasped, breathlessly. "We should...Probably find the...Others."

"Others?" Kouichi was hardly even sweating.

"There were two other kids with us. Takuya was the one who Evolved..." Tomoki panted.

"There's also...a girl, I think she said her name was Izumi."

"She's really pretty," Junpei had this odd love-struck look on his face.

Tomoki looked at him for a moment before continuing. "We left them to try and find a way home."

"Why don't we go and find them, then?" Kouichi glanced at the rest of us, realizing that we were all still getting our breath back from that run. "Er...When you're all ready, of course."

After we'd rested a bit from that run, we set off in the direction that Junpei and Tomoki said they'd come from. We kept an eye out for any more of those creatures, but couldn't see anything.

"So, where did you hear about these Spirits, anyway?" Kouichi asked.

"Actually we didn't hear as much as saw it all happen." Junpei glanced about nervously, no doubt making sure there were no more of the creatures around. "There was this little white guy named Bokomon, he seemed to know something about those Spirits. More than I do, anyways."

"Well, that's helpful." Kouichi shrugged. "Guess we're just gonna have to find this Bokomon. He probably knows what we've gotten into."

"Maybe this thing will help." Tomoki pulled a green and white Digivice out of his pocket and began pushing at the buttons on it. Junpei followed his example.

"What the..." Junpei's exclamation several seconds later made all of us look over to where he stood staring at his Digivice, which was projecting some kind of map. Four dots, obviously _us_, at one end. Not too far away there was another dot.

"What's that?" Tomoki asked, pointing at the single dot.

"No idea," Junpei said. "But it's probably a good thing, right? Maybe it's a Spirit for me!"

"Maybe it's one of your friends," I looked up, then froze. The creatures were back. And it looked like there were _more _of them.

"K-Kouichi..." I managed to get out. That got the others' attention. Possibly because it was the first word I'd said since we'd run the first time. Either way, the others took one look at the creatures and then we were running again. This time, Kouichi took the lead.

"This way! That dot has to be something to help us!"

We followed him through the streets, but then we ran into an area which was blocked off by a mess of fallen pipes, a dead-end.

"We're trapped!" Tomoki yelled. "What do we do?"

Kouichi was already on it, pushing a pipe to the side of a nearby building.

"Kouji, give me a hand here! We can stack these, then climb on to the roof!"

I hesitated. I tend to freeze up when under pressure, as Kouichi had found out when we had first met, and at that point we were very much under pressure. Luckily Junpei was faster than me and helped Kouichi to pull another pipe over to where the first one was, then they stacked the second one as securely as possible on the first one. They were barely high enough that someone our size could get up if they were careful not to knock the pipe over. Tomoki would have some trouble, though.

"They're coming!" Tomoki scrambled back towards the pipes.

"C'mon, let's move!" Kouichi grabbed Tomoki and gave him a lift on to the roof. Junpei followed him, although he too needed a lift from my brother, then Kouichi beckoned to me.

"You're next, little brother."

I had some trouble hauling myself on to the roof but between Kouichi giving me a boost and Junpei pulling from the roof itself I could get up. Then Kouichi hauled himself up, kicking the pipe below him off the other pipe as he did, and just in time. The creatures were literally nipping at his heels. Luckily he pulled his legs up so they couldn't get him, and then pulled himself up the rest of the way.

"Everybody all right?" He asked. I nodded. There wasn't much room on the roof, but it was better than being eaten alive.

"Slightly traumatized, but otherwise fine." Junpei looked over at Tomoki. "You okay, Tomoki?"

Tomoki wasn't listening to him. He was thumping on his Digivice frantically.

"C'mon, c'mon...Work, work, work, _work_! Turn me into a Digimon!"

"I think he's okay." Kouichi leaned over to look down at the creatures still bouncing around below. "They don't give up too easily, do they? I think we're stuck here, for now at least."

I took off my backpack long enough to pull a book out of it. If I had to be stuck on a roof with other people, I might as well do what I always did. Avoid any conversation with the others by reading. I could hear Kouichi and Junpei talking to each other, but ignored them. It wasn't any of my business, anyways.

"We got a problem here." The sudden alarm in Junpei's voice and the fact that Kouichi and Tomoki, who had joined him at the edge of the roof, were also exclaiming in alarm was enough to pull me out of my book and to take a look for myself. The creatures were piling up on each other, and the pile was getting higher and higher...

"What do we do?" Junpei yelled. Tomoki backed up to the other side of the roof, shaking in terror. I hoped he wouldn't fall off the edge.

"Calm down." Kouichi scowled down at the growing pile of creatures. "We just need to knock them down."

"And how are we going to knock them down, anyways?" I asked pointedly. That was when I noticed Kouichi staring at my book.

"No. Absolutely not. This is a _library _book."

"And we're only in mortal danger. C'mon little brother, we _need _that book." Kouichi advanced on me. I hugged the book to my chest and moved as far away from him as I could.

"Kouji, we need to distract them somehow. Which one would you rather lose, a library book or your life?"

"Even if we could use my book to knock them down...What's to stop them from piling up again?"

Kouichi blinked, like he hadn't thought of that. "Well, if it'll buy us time it's worth it. Now _give me that book_! They're almost here!"

I reluctantly handed the book over to him. "You get to pay for it, you know."

"Right." Kouichi walked to the edge and aimed my book at the creatures.

"_Fire Darts!_"

A blast of fire suddenly knocked the pile of creatures down, saving my book. A human-like creature, about the same size as my father, sprinted down the path and into the street below us.

"Agnimon! We're saved!" Tomoki stopped cowering and moved to the closer side to wave at the newcomer. The creature grinned, and waved back. Then he suddenly shimmered and shrank into the boy we had seen earlier in the elevator.

"What? I'm back to me again?" The boy looked down at himself. As he did, one of the defeated creatures started shimmering, too.

"Pagumon Evolve," it yelled. The shimmering shape got bigger and bigger. The creature that popped out of the shimmer was as big as a horse. And it was also a bee. An enormous bee.

"...Flymon!" The creature shrieked. It took off into the air, then turned and and blasted a kind of shock wave from its' wings at us. Kouichi pushed me and Tomoki down. Junpei narrowly missed the blast, which hit the roof behind of the next building behind him, taking out a fair chunk of the building as well as a TV antenna which had been on there. Sparks sputtered and flared from the broken wiring.

A light caught my eyes from over where Junpei was lying. I realized that the light was his Digivice, which had left his grip and was hovering in mid-air. It moved over to where the antenna had been. Through the swirling sparks and smoke the attack had created, I could see something odd. It looked a bit like a statue of some kind of beetle. The statue-thing started to move, too. It hovered towards Junpei's Digivice, then turned into that shimmering stuff and went into it. The Digivice sank slowly to the roof beneath it. Junpei picked it up.

"Is this my Spirit?" He asked, incredulously. The bee turned and was coming back for a second pass. This time it wouldn't miss...

Junpei held up his Digivice. A swirl of the shimmering stuff appeared on one hand, which he brushed against the top of his Digivice.

_"Spirit...Evolution!"_

The substance swirled around him, completely covering him, and then grew. What came out was a beetle-like creature which looked similar to that statue which had gone into his Digivice.

"..._Blitzmon_!"

"Is that...Junpei?" Kouichi's voice shook. I couldn't even say anything. Not that it would have been anything useful. Or printable. The bee hesitated, confused by this turn of events.

"I...I did it!" The beetle danced around enthusiastically. "I Spirit Evolved!"

"It sure is," the other boy called from down on the ground. "Um...You guys can get off there now, I think Blitzmon's gonna take care of that thing."

We kept an eye on the fight as we went back down to the ground below us. The two Digimon...I couldn't say _insects_, since one of them had been a human and the other a blob until a minute before, circled one another warily.

A blonde girl about my age and two more creatures ran around another building. One looked something like a cross between a stuffed toy and a small grayish-white dog dressed in a haramaki, a kind of wrapped outfit, the other looked a bit like a yellow rabbit with red pants.

"What's going on?" The girl demanded. "Tomoki, you're all right! But, where's Junpei? Who are these guys?" She eyed me and Kouichi curiously.

"Junpei's up there." The other boy pointed an outstretched arm at the beetle.

"What? We missed his evolution?" The grayish-white dog creature squeaked as the girl's jaw dropped. He turned to the rabbit-like creature. "You idiot! If you hadn't been so slow, we would have seen it happen!" He pulled the waistband of the rabbit's pants back and let it go, snapping it into the rabbit's midsection causing him to yelp in pain. The dog then pulled a book out of his haramaki and opened it up. I was curious enough to lean over so I could see inside the book, but the text inside wasn't Japanese. It looked like some kind of odd symbols, plus pictures. The creature flipped to a page which had a picture of the beetle.

"Blitzmon. The Legendary Warrior of Thunder! His attacks are Thor Hammer and Mjolnir Thunder."

That was when the bee (Flymon? Was that what it called itself?) attacked, firing stingers at Blitzmon.

_"Brown Stingers!"_

I held my breath as the stingers hit their target, but they bounced off his armor without any apparent effect.

"That all you got? Guess it's my turn!" Blitzmon held up a fist which started giving off sparks of electricity.

"_Thor Hammer_!" He plunged his fist into the Flymon's face. It shrieked in agony, then a ring of the shimmery substance I had seen earlier grew out of it. It was at this point when I realized that the stuff must be some form of data. Blitzmon summoned Junpei's Digivice out of wherever he had kept it before.

"Evil soul, let this Digivice purify you! Digicode, _scan_!"

A thread of...Should I call it Digicode? Ran out of the ring, then started winding into the Digivice. As the ring swirled and faded, the Flymon disintegrated into an egg hovering in the air, which then floated off into the sky. Blitzmon hovered back to the ground, then the...Digicode swirled around him again and Junpei was standing there. He sank into a sitting position, panting in exhaustion.

"Junpei!" Tomoki, the girl, and the boy who'd Evolved earlier all ran up to him.

"How was that?" Junpei asked. "Wasn't I awesome?"

"You sure were," Tomoki told him,

"You were _molto _awesome!" The girl, I guessed she was the Izumi whom Junpei had mentioned earlier, said. Junpei's triumphant expression turned to confusion at the non-Japanese word.

"Huh?"

Izumi smiled. "It means 'very.' Very awesome."

"Really?" Junpei's eyes lit up.

"That's all good, but who are these other two humans?" The small gray creature asked, causing everyone else to look over at Kouichi and me.

"I'm Kouichi Kimura. This is my twin brother, Kouji. Nice to meet you."

"Eh? Twins?" Turning to look back and forth between the two of us, Izumi's eyes went wide.

"I _thought _you two looked alike." The other boy said. "I'm Takuya Kanbara."

"I'm Izumi Orimoto. Nice to meet you...You two really _do _look alike." I was right, the girl was Izumi. And both of them were making me a bit uncomfortable with their staring. Was I going to go through this every time someone saw me with Kouichi?

"I'm Bokomon," the dog-like creature spoke up.

"I'm Neemon." The rabbit-like creature added. "Nice to meet you."

"Yeah, likewise." Kouichi crossed his arms. "Now will someone tell me what we've gotten ourselves into?"

The others all exchanged glances.

"Come to think of it, what _are _the Spirits, anyways?" Takuya looked at Bokomon. "Bokomon, do you know?"

"A long time ago there was a war between the Human and Beast Digimon." Bokomon flipped through his book. "Then one day a Digimon called Lucemon came down from the sky and created peace between them. He was chosen to rule because of this. For a time everything was peaceful, until Lucemon was corrupted by his own power and went insane."

"Then what happened? I can't remember." Neemon interrupted

"You're such an idiot..._Everyone _in the Digital World knows what happened. Ten Legendary Warriors, one for every element, worked together and sealed Lucemon off. Then they somehow turned a part of their data into Spirits, in case Lucemon broke free. We were trying to find the Spirits to see if they could possibly help us against Cherubimon, but that Cerberumon found us."

Kouichi spoke up. "Cherubimon? He's the one who's taking all the data, right? That's what the Trailmon we came on said."

"That's right, his followers have been taking the world's Digicode ever since he came to power. The only ones who have the power to stop him are the Legendary Warriors. You're our only hope." Bokomon looked at Takuya and Junpei. "You have the Spirits of Agnimon of Fire and Bliztmon of Thunder. You two are the only ones who can defeat Cherubimon and restore the Digital World..." He glared at Neemon. "Neemon, why aren't you begging them to help us?!"

"Whaaat?" Neemon asked. Neemon evidently wasn't the brightest Digimon out there.

"What about the rest of us?" Izumi asked irritably. "I don't know about Kouichi and Kouji, but Tomoki and I've got those Digivices, too. So, shouldn't there be Spirits out there for _us_, too?"

She pointedly held up a pink and purple Digivice in Bokomon's face.

"Well, there's no reason why the rest of you can't Evolve, too," Bokomon said. "If you all have Digivices, then you should be able to Evolve if you find the Spirits."

"Oh, no." Kouichi groaned. "We can't just stay here and save your world. We have to get home! Our mother's getting out of work soon."

He was back to trying to get me to meet his mother. Kouichi still didn't understand what I was going through. I wasn't ready to meet her yet, no matter what he thought. I already _had _a mother, I had Satomi...

"But..." Bokomon's eyes grew huge, a bit like Tomoki's when he was about to cry.

"Look, I'm sorry, but Kouji and I have to get home..."

"'Kouji and I'?" I said softly, catching my brother's attention. "How come _I _have to do everything _you _do? Do you think a brother is just your clone? Because I'm _not_!"

I turned and ran off through the buildings and into what were probably the outskirts of the town, a grassy place with trees which reminded me of a park I liked to go to at home. I staggered, catching my breath, then sat down under a nearby tree. I was running away again, but wasn't that something I was used to? I wrapped my arms around my knees. Kouichi wanted me to meet his mother. While I _wanted _to meet her, it wasn't something I was ready for. The Digimon wanted me to save their world, like something out of one of the books I loved. It wasn't really a choice.

Either go back and do something I wasn't ready to do, or stay and do something I had always wanted to do.

"Kouji?" Kouichi. I shouldn't have been surprised that he'd followed me. "Look, I know it's your life and I can't tell you what to do, but I don't think staying here and trying to save this place is a good idea. You could get hurt, or worse."

"If I go home, what will happen to this world?" I looked up at him. "Cherubimon will destroy it all, right? What will happen to the Digimon? Besides, when he's done with _this _world, what's to stop him from going to _our _world and doing the same thing? If the Trailmon can get to our world from here, who's to say _Cherubimon _can't do the same thing?"

Kouichi's face paled as he thought about what I had said. I cast my gaze to my knees.

"I'm staying, Kouichi. You can go home if you want to. It might be a good idea, too. I don't want you to get hurt..."

"Oh, I'm staying too, little brother." I looked up at him in surprise.

"Huh?"

"I _told _you I'm staying with you. I think you're an idiot for going through all this, but I'm going to see this through." Kouichi paused. "But before we start, I want you to promise something. Promise me that when we get home..._If _we get home, you'll visit our Mom."

I looked back down at my knees.

"I'll visit Mom...If _you _promise to come meet Dad and Satomi. Dad isn't the demon you think he is, and Satomi's really nice."

There was a long pause, then: "You drive a harsh bargain, little brother. All right, it's a deal. Here."

I looked up again to see him kneeling beside me and extending a pinky finger in my direction.

"What's this?"

"Haven't you heard of a 'pinky promise' before?"

"I've heard of it, but..." _I never had any friends to do it with me_, I finished mentally. "...But, I thought that was a little kid thing," I finished aloud.

"So? I do it all the time with my friends. Here." Kouichi gently picked up my hand and locked his pinky around mine. "See, it's like that." He smiled that blinding smile of his.

"I guess..." I found myself blushing and quickly looked away. "We should go and tell the others we're _both _staying."

**Author's note: I didn't want the first few fights to go like they did before but with the twins added, so they're all gonna be different. Many thanks to Evide for proofreading it for me!**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

By the time Kouichi and I had tracked down the others to the station, there was already a (Different one from the Angler) Trailmon leaving. Which probably Tomoki and possibly Junpei on board. Good. At least I wouldn't have to worry about one or the both of them getting hurt in all this.

When we got to the station however it was to see both Junpei _and _Tomoki with the others.

"What, you two are still here?" Kouichi called cheerfully. "I thought you two left on that Trailmon."

"Well, I decided I want to be a hero, like Takuya." Tomoki said quietly. "What about you guys? Why are _you _still here?"

"Kouji's in it because he's into this whole saving the world thing," Kouichi jerked a thumb in my direction. "I'm just in it to make sure nothing happens to him. Mom would kill me if that happened."

"You're really gonna do it?" Bokomon's eyes lit up.

"Everyone..." That female voice again. I picked up my Digivice to discover that strange symbol on it again.

"The Forest Terminal..."

"The Forest Terminal?" Takuya repeated. "Where's that?"

There was no response. The light on my Digivice...The _Digivices_, rather. I looked at the others to see theirs were lit up like mine, but faded too.

"Hey! Answer me!" Takuya fiddled around with his red and black Digivice, but nothing happened.

"She's not very good at being clear, is she?" Kouichi asked, irritably.

"The Forest Terminal is down these tracks..." Bokomon had that book of his out again. He pointed to one of the sets of train tracks leaving the station.

"What's over there?" Neemon asked before anyone else could.

There was a long pause.

"...I don't know."

"Guess we'd better get walking," Kouichi said. "Too bad that Trailmon left, he could give us a ride."

"Or we could just wait for another," Izumi pointed out.

"We don't know if another one will come." Kouichi shrugged.

"Bokomon, do you know how far away it is?" Tomoki asked. "It's getting late."

Come to think of it, it was nearly sunset. I realized that the time here seemed a bit off, like we were in another time zone.

Bokomon flipped to another page. "It shouldn't be too far, most Trailmon terminals are within a day's walk of one another."

"Walking for a whole _day_?" Junpei groaned. "I don't want to do _that_."

"Is there a place here we can stay for the night?" I asked.

"None that has anything sized for humans. All the Digimon here are rather small. You'd have to sleep on the floor."

_Everyone _groaned at that.

"Better the floor in a safe place than the wilderness," Bokomon glared at us. "You'd have to post watches in case you were attacked."

"_Attacked_?" Tomoki shuddered.

"I don't think we need to worry about that." Izumi flipped some of her hair back. "We've got Takuya and Junpei with us, I don't think any Digimon would want to mess with two Legendary Warriors, right?"

Takuya shrugged. "She's got a point. So, we're all for walking?"

"If it leads to something more comfortable than the floor of a house that's not made for humans, I'm in," Junpei said.

"We only have to walk if a Trailmon doesn't come up in time." Kouichi looked around. "Which is probably not gonna happen."

"Right, let's go." Takuya led the way out of the station.

It's not that I don't like traveling in groups, it's dealing with other people that I don't do very well. So, when I wind up walking with more than one other person I usually fall to the back. Since everyone else is looking forward, they don't see me, I don't have to deal with them, and I'm okay. The sun set further and further as we left the Flame Terminal behind us and headed into the desolate landscape beyond it, giving us all long shadows which faded out when the sun dipped behind the horizon.

Takuya, Kouichi, and Junpei were walking just ahead of me. Izumi was a bit ahead of them, keeping an eye on Tomoki, who was balancing on one of the train rails.

"So, you guys got that message, too?" My brother was saying.

"Yup." Takuya put his arms behind his head and stretched. "Almost got flattened by a truck while I was on my way here...I didn't want to leave that soccer ball in the street where the kid who was playing with it could get hit."

"Soccer? Don't suppose you play it, too?"

"Wait, you play _soccer_? That's great, which position?"

"Left winger. You?"

"Center forward." Takuya grinned. "My Dad coaches our youth league, too. Who do you play for"

"Oh, I just play for school." Was it just me or did Kouichi's shoulders tense a bit?

"That explains why I never played you. Well, that's great. Maybe when we get home we can have a match. Or sooner, if we can find a ball."

There was silence for a moment before Takuya turned to Junpei.

"Hey, why didn't you stay on the train?"

Junpei scratched at his cheek. "Well, I thought this world was kinda interesting I'd like to explore it with you guys."

"And Izumi." Takuya added with a snicker.

"I didn't say that!"

"Weren't you just talking about how pretty she was?" Kouichi had his face turned enough that I could easily see his smirk.

"You're blushing." Takuya pointed out. As a matter of fact, the blush had spread to the back of Junpei's neck.

"I..Idiots. What grade are you two in, anyways?

"I'm in fifth grade." Kouichi said.

Takuya nodded. "Yeah, me too."

"_I'm _in _sixth _grade.

"Sixth graders can fall in love, too? I never would have guessed it." Kouichi shrugged.

"Ooh..." Junpei walked faster, quickly leaving the other two behind.

"I should apologize to him when I get a chance," Kouichi remarked. "I probably went too far there."

Takuya shrugged. "Probably."

"Look!" Tomoki cried, pointing up ahead. There seemed to be a very large canyon on the horizon. The train tracks, evidently supposed to cross the canyon, were broken off at either end, and as we got closer I could see a slow-moving river winding through the bottom of the trench. It was a reassuring sight compared to the cliffs I'd seen earlier, which didn't seem to have a bottom.

"How do we get across?" Izumi asked.

We could, in theory, get to the bottom of the canyon and cross there, I reflected. Of course, the difficulty was getting up, down, and across the river.

"We'll just have to find another way." Takuya crossed his arms irritably. "Hey, is it me or are there lights down there?"

I looked down into the chasm. Sure enough, I could see flickering lights, like torches.

"Let's get a little closer." Kouichi suggested. "Maybe those guys know how to get to the Forest Terminal. Or at least where there's a place to sleep for the night."

As we got nearer, I could see a winding ramp leading down to the bottom. We were almost down when Tomoki started slowing down.

"Getting tired, Tomoki?" Takuya wondered.

"Nuh-_uh_. I'm not tired." Tomoki started walking faster. Izumi hid a smile behind her hand, before looking back out into the canyon.

"I don't see those lights anymore. I wonder what happened."

"Hey!"

Kouichi had made it to the bottom of the ramp first, and was looking at a large boulder. We all scrambled down the rest of the ramp to see the boulder. Or rather the carvings on the boulder. There was a picture of an angel of some sort, surrounded by odd-looking symbols.

"What's this?" Kouichi pointed at the carvings.

Bokomon pulled out his book. "That's Lucemon. He's the one who was trying to take over the world, until the Legendary Warriors stopped him."

"I've seen that symbol before." Tomoki pointed at one set of symbols. "That's on Agnimon's belt."

Come to think of it, I realized that there were in fact _ten _symbols. I guessed that they represented each warrior.

"I've seen those, too." Izumi reached a hand to another symbol. "They're on Blitzmon's legs."

"What are the other elements?" I asked.

Bokomon flipped several pages. "We've already seen Agnimon of Fire and Blitzmon of Thunder. The others are Grottomon of Earth, Chakkmon of Ice, Wolfmon of Light, Mercurymon of Metal, Ranamon of Water, Fairymon of Wind, and Arbormon of Wood."

"But, that's only nine!" Junpei protested. "Who's the other one?"

"That's the Warrior of Darkness, but there's a problem." Bokomon held up his book. The pages he showed were all black.

"What's that?" Tomoki squinted at the pages.

"That's all I have on Darkness."

Kouichi crossed his arms irritably. "Well, _that's _a lot of help."

That was when I noticed the flickering lights again, only this time they were right behind us. Or rather, _surrounding _us. I turned to see dozens of creatures that looked like giant candles with faces, waxy "hands," and matchstick spears, all of which were pointed at us. I froze. Next to me, I could hear Izumi gasp and Takuya yelp in surprise.

"What are _humans _doing here?" The "candle" in the center demanded. "Speak up, or else..." The others held up their spears menacingly.

"Let _me _handle this," Kouichi whispered. Then out loud: "_Oh_, I'm really sorry. We didn't know this was your territory. We were just passing through. Would you guys know how far away the Forest Terminal is?"

The candles glanced at one another.

"You didn't answer my question." The candle who had spoken earlier repeated. "What are you doing in this world?"

"These humans have the Spirits of the Legendary Warriors!" Bokomon huffed. "They're here to save it..." He got no further as Kouichi pointedly nudged him with his foot. The candles murmured amongst themselves.

Kouichi rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Someone brought us here, then told us to go to the Forest Terminal. We figured that that was the best way to get home. Now we've answered your question, you haven't answered mine yet."

The candle paused, I noticed that its' flame flared up a couple of times. Then another candle's flame flared a bit. I wondered if it was some kind of way to communicate.

"The Forest Terminal is too far for one day's walk. It's getting late, perhaps you humans would like to stay in our village for the night?"

"Well, we _are _getting tired..." Takuya glanced at Tomoki, who nodded. "I think we should get some rest."

"Of course. Right this way." The candles began bouncing off through the canyon. Fortunately, their flames made them easier to follow.

"Bokomon, do you know who those guys are?" Izumi asked him in a low enough voice that the candles wouldn't hear.

"They're Candlemon." Bokomon had his book out again. "But, I didn't know they lived this close to the Flame Terminal. They prefer hotter places, like volcanoes."

"That's weird," Junpei remarked.

"We're almost there, humans!" The candle...Candle_mon_ said. I looked up to see what looked like a cave of some kind in the canyon wall. As we neared, I could see that it seemed to be more like a system of caves joined together.

"This is our village," the Candlemon gestured at the caves. "You humans are welcome to sleep here tonight. If there's anything you need, just ask."

"Well, we probably need some food, too." Kouichi glanced at the rest of us. "We didn't exactly get any time to pack." He grinned innocently at the Candlemon. "We'll only take a little."

"What kind of hosts would we be if we _didn't _offer our guests food? Come, let us go and get that food."

"Hey, Kouichi..." Takuya said in an undertone as we entered the cave. "You did a good job getting us in here. Thanks."

"It's nothing." I couldn't see my brother's face very well in the darkness, but I thought his eyes darkened for a moment.

The Candlemon had a tunnel which led to a large central cave It was dominated by a large fire in the middle, which several more Candlemon were bouncing around. The others quickly got close to the fire, chatting eagerly as they did. They were all enjoying themselves, weren't they? I thought about joining them for a minute, but couldn't bring myself to. If I stayed with the others, they'd probably try to make me join in their conversation, especially Kouichi. No, I couldn't bring myself to join them. Besides, I still had those books I'd gotten out of the library earlier. I quietly slipped out of the cave.

Outside the air was fresh, and the light from the moons...There were _three _moons, not one, which made it a _lot _easier to read, was pleasant. I looked around, then found a nice place to read with my backpack next to me and my back to the canyon wall, which was still warm from the sun earlier. It took a few minutes before I was interrupted, first by a Candlemon.

"Wouldn't you like to come in?" It asked. "We've got food. Your friends are already eating."

"Later. Thanks." I didn't even pull myself out of the book. Luckily it took the hint and hopped back inside.

About twenty minutes later, it was Kouichi who interrupted me.

"Hey, you all right, little brother?"

"Fine."

"D'you want some food? The Candlemon gave us some weird apples that taste like meat."

"I'll have some later. Thanks."

"You sure? The others might eat them all."

"I'm fine. I just want to read my book, okay?" I said a bit more defensively than I'd intended, I realized belatedly.

"I'm not trying to drag you into anything, Kouji. I'm just trying to make sure you get something to eat."

I flinched. I hadn't wanted to insult him. "Sorry. I appreciate it, thank you. I...Remember when I told you that my reaction to anyone trying to talk to me is to grab the nearest book? I just don't interact with other people too well. I'll have dinner later."

"You aren't the only one who doesn't interact with people too well." Kouichi said in a sheepish tone. I pulled myself out of my book to see him rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "I said something stupid to Junpei earlier. I should go apologize." He flashed that bright grin at me. "I'll see you later, little brother."

As he went back I heard him yelp in surprise, like he'd bumped into someone. Then there was some muffled conversation. The newcomer's voice sounded like Izumi. I picked up my name in the talking. Great, just what I needed. _More _people trying to encourage me to be with the others. I didn't want to _join _anyone. The only reason I hadn't just left the others was because I wasn't stupid enough to think I could handle any Digimon attacking me without the others.

A minute later, Izumi came out of the cave. "Kouji? I brought some food for you."

"Thanks." As reluctant as I was to deal with anyone else, I _was _getting hungry. She handed me a plate with several of what looked like roasted apples, but instead of heading back into the cave she sat down next to me with another apple. I mentally groaned as I picked an apple up.

"It's pretty nice out here. It was getting pretty hot inside. And noisy, too." Izumi took a bite out of her apple, so she didn't talk for a few seconds. "Besides, I thought you could use the company."

I wasn't in the mood for company. The only reason I hadn't gotten up and left was because the only other place to go was inside...And _that _was even worse. I picked up my book again, keeping the apple in one hand so I could eat it, hoping that if I did that long enough, she'd leave.

"You don't talk a lot, do you Kouji? I don't think I've heard more than one or two sentences out of you since we left the Flame Terminal. And here you are buried in a book."

I looked down, keenly aware of my inability to interact with others. I didn't usually interact, I _reacted_.

"I actually don't mind," Izumi continued. "You haven't told me to leave or anything. Besides, it's easier to deal with someone when they're not talking your ears off. I had a friend back in Italy who was like that...She would talk so much I could barely get a word in."

Italy? Come to think of it, she'd said a foreign word before back at the terminal. Had that been an Italian word? I peeked out from behind my book in surprise.

"Oh, sorry. You weren't there when I told the others. My family and I have been in Italy for the last four years. We just got back a couple of months ago...I'm so used to Italy that life in Japan is a bit hard to get used to sometimes."

I nodded in sympathy. I might not be good at talking to people, but I certainly knew how hard it was to go from living in one place to another. It must have been even harder to come back to a country you barely remembered, with no friends...

"Is that smoke?" Izumi's alarmed voice brought me back to the present. I turned to see that there was indeed smoke coming out of the cave's entrance. An oddly colored _yellow _smoke...

"Run!" Takuya sprang out of the cave, carrying a coughing Tomoki. "It was a trap! They're after us!"

I gasped and pulled myself to my feet. Izumi did the same as a bunch of Candlemon hopped out of the cave carrying torches which were giving off that yellow smoke.

"Head for the water!" Takuya sprinted for the nearby river, with Izumi on his heels. I paused at the edge long enough to stuff my book into my backpack, and to mentally thank Satomi for getting me a waterproof backpack after I'd been caught out in the rain, ruining a library book, before plunging in with the others.

Fortunately I could swim a little. Not enough to do anything fancy, but enough to keep my head over the water. Tomoki didn't seem to be doing so well, but Takuya was holding him up. We swam behind a nearby boulder, where the Candlemon couldn't see us and the water there was shallow enough that Takuya, Izumi, and I could stand before pausing to catch our breath. Takuya held Tomoki up, so he didn't have to worry about it.

"Where's Kouichi?" I had a horrible feeling I knew the answer.

"And Junpei?" Izumi added.

Takuya's face paled in horror. "They were right behind me...They must still be in there, we have to go rescue them!"

"_If _they're still alive." I'd read too many books where the minor characters got caught in a trap and killed. I instantly regretted the words. What was I _thinking_, saying something like that? This was my _brother _I was talking about. I closed my mouth and looked down at the water.

"I don't think they're trying to kill us," Izumi said. "If they'd really wanted to kill us, they'd have attacked us when we first met them."

She had a point...Kouichi was all right. He _had _to be. I clenched my fists under the water.

"What actually happened, anyways? Kouji and I were outside."

"The Candlemon threw some weird powder on the fire, and it started giving off that yellow smoke. I grabbed Tomoki and ran, the others were right behind me..." Takuya pulled out his Digivice. "Okay, you guys stay here. I'll go rescue the others." He handed Tomoki to me. I was about to back away in protest, but Tomoki wrapped his arms around me before I could.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Izumi asked. "They're _candles_. I don't think fire hurts them."

"I'm the only one here who can Evolve. Besides, fire won't hurt me, too."

"But, Takuya..." Tomoki protested.

"I'll be fine. I don't want those Candlemon to get you, too. Just stay here." He pulled his goggles on and dove underneath the water. We peered out from behind the boulder to see Takuya Spirit Evolve, then engage the Candlemon as Agnimon. Unfortunately, Izumi's remarks about the Candlemon being fireproof turned out to be entirely too true. Agnimon's fire attacks not only didn't hurt them, it made their flames stronger. The Candlemon started attacking with fire, too, but after Agnimon absorbed their fire attacks, they tried something else, firing wax pellets at him. These had more effect; Agnimon yelped in pain, then had to dodge more wax pellets. Now the situation had turned from stalemate into a running battle, and things were not looking good for Agnimon.

"We have to help him!" Tomoki struggled to get out of my grasp, only to fall into the water. He struggled for a minute before I grabbed him again. "We can't just sit here and watch those guys hurt Takuya...!"

"We aren't going to." Izumi turned to us. "All those Candlemon are occupied with Agnimon, right? We can sneak into the cave and free Kouichi and Junpei."

Tomoki sniffed a little. Even with his face wet, he was crying. "Yeah, Blitzmon can take those guys down. We gotta hurry!"

If it wasn't for the fact that my brother was still in the cave, I would have refused. A part of me wanted to freeze up and go somewhere safe to wait until it all ended, but Kouichi was in trouble, and we were the only ones who _could _help him at this point. We sloshed out of the water, keeping our eyes out for any Candlemon who might spot us. The cave still had that yellow smoke coming out of it, which definitely put a cramp in Izumi's plan.

"_Maledizione! _We can't get in!" She exclaimed.

I looked at the smoke as an idea came to mind. We had just been in the water, and our clothing was still wet...

"Do you have any sort of cloth handkerchiefs?" I asked.

"Huh?" They both blinked at me.

"I read somewhere that if you put a wet cloth on your nose and mouth, smoke won't affect you as much."

"He's right." Tomoki wiped his eyes. "I saw it once in an anime."

Izumi searched her pockets before pulling out a pair of handkerchiefs and handing one to me.

"Here. We'll rescue Junpei first, since he can Evolve, then we'll go back for Kouichi."

I nodded, reluctantly. I felt horrible at not being able to save my brother right away, but time was of the essence, and Kouichi couldn't Evolve yet.

"You stay here, Tomoki. Call us if you see any Candlemon, okay?" Izumi flashed a reassuring smile as she put the cloth over her face. He nodded.

"I won't let you guys down!"

The smoke stung my eyes as we entered the cave. It was also a bit hard to see, which made our task even more difficult. We didn't say anything to each other, since that would give the smoke a better chance to get us. After a minute or so of walking Izumi grabbed my shoulder, then pointed up ahead. Sure enough, I could see Junpei and Kouichi lying on the floor right outside the large cavern. My stomach tightened as I remembered my earlier thoughts of how they might not be alive, and the tight feeling refused to leave until I was at my brother's side, turning him over to check him. He was still breathing, I realized. Izumi was right! The smoke must have been some kind of knockout gas.

I realized that Izumi was staring at me with concern in her eyes, and I nodded. She relaxed, then pointed down to Junpei. I moved over to help her pick him up, then we turned around and headed for the cave's entrance.

When we were about halfway back, Izumi suddenly paused.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I felt a breeze...Was there a tunnel over here?"

"I can't remember. We can worry about it after we're safe."

"Right."

The end of the tunnel got closer and closer, and I felt elated. We were almost there. Then once Junpei was out I could go and rescue Kouichi...

There was a loud cry from the entrance, and I looked up to see a Candlemon looming over a terrified Tomoki.

"Y-You leave me alone! Why did you hurt us? We never did anything to _you_!"

"You have the Spirits. I'm sure Cherubimon will pay us handsomely for these." It tossed Tomoki's Digivice up and down. "Don't try to fight us, and we won't hurt you, okay?"

I suddenly felt Junpei's weight shift as Izumi pulled his arm off her shoulder. I would have asked her what she was doing if I hadn't been occupied with Junpei's weight knocking me off balance. By the time I recovered enough to put Junpei on the floor, Izumi had a fairly large rock in both hands and was sneaking up on the Candlemon. The Candlemon took the rock right to the face, causing it to drop Tomoki's Digivice. Unfortunately, all that did was make it mad.

"_Codardo_! Try doing that to someone who can fight back!" Izumi yelled.

"Oh, I'll do more than just that," the Candlemon snarled.

That was when I saw a light in the tunnel from where we had just come. A part of the tunnel wall suddenly blew apart, and I saw a strange statue, a bit like the one that had let Junpei Evolve into Blitzmon. Instead of a beetle however, this one looked more like a fairy. Was it going to one of us? Maybe it was mine...I felt for my Digivice, but the Spirit instead flew past me and outside the cave, to Izumi.

"Is this my Spirit?" She asked, pulling out her Digivice. The Spirit turned to Digicode and went in, and then a ring of Digicode wrapped around her hand.

"Spirit..._Evolution_!"

More Digicode swirled out of her Digivice, completely covering her. What came out looked like a fairy from some of the books I read.

"..._Fairymon_!"

The Candlemon, no doubt realizing that it was in serious trouble, hopped off in terror. Tomoki, realizing I was there, ran over to help with Junpei. Fortunately, we were close enough to the entrance that the smoke wasn't affecting us as badly.

"Can you stay with him? I need to rescue Kouichi..." I got to my feet.

"I can help with that. _Brezza Petalo_!" Izumi..._Fairymon _said. She gestured at the cave and I suddenly felt a blast of wind, driving the smoke back. I ran back through the tunnel to where Kouichi had fallen and pulled his arm over my shoulder to bring him out. Fairymon flew past me to the central fire where the smoke was coming from in the first place.

_"Brezza Petalo!"_

The wind blast surrounded the fire, which quickly went out, leaving only a few torches spaced along the walls for light.

Fairymon flew past me again as we went back down the tunnel. By the time we reached the cave's mouth, she had carried Junpei outside the cave. I noticed with a twist of sardonic amusement that he'd been placed in the same spot where I'd been reading earlier. Still, it was probably the best place. Tomoki gave me a hand putting Kouichi down next to Junpei. I spared my brother one last glance before turning my attention back to the fight.

By this point, Fairymon had flown off to help Agnimon. He was looking somewhat battered and very tired, but he was doing better than I had dreaded. Fairymon fluttered down next to him.

"Need a hand?"

"Yeah, I...Wait a sec, _Izumi_?"

"You got it. Now, let's see what we can do here." She gestured again and wind started up again. "_Brezza Petalo_!"

The wind roared past the Candlemon, making their flames glow even larger. One of the Candlemon burst out laughing. "_Wind_? What do you think _wind _does against _fire_? You're even less use against us than the Warrior of Fire!"

"Oh, really? Look behind you."

The Candlemon looked behind them at the river. And at the very _large _wave of water the wind had kicked up. The wave came crashing down on all of them, making rings of Digicode appear on them. Fairymon held up her Digivice.

"Evil spirits, let the wind blow you clean. Digicode, _scan_!"

The Candlemon all turned to eggs as their Digicode disappeared into her Digivice. Agnimon and Fairymon both shrank down into their human forms.

"Izumi, that was _amazing_! How did you do that?" Takuya asked.

She laughed. "Sometimes it's not the storm itself that does the damage, it's the stuff that the storm blows. I learned that back in Italy, when a tree took out our power in a storm..." All of a sudden, her Digivice lit up again. Streams of Digicode flowed out of it, forming a stairway on the other side of the canyon. More Digicode went upwards, to the broken train tracks at the top, fixing them.

"Well, that answers the question of how we get out of here," Izumi remarked.

"_Ow_...My _head_."

I turned around to see Kouichi was gently holding his head. Beside him, Junpei coughed and stirred.

"What happened?" Junpei asked.

Izumi laughed. "Oh, I just Spirit Evolved and saved everyone."

"What? I missed it?" He turned to Tomoki. "I'll bet she had a really pretty Evolution, too."

"She sure did. She looked like a butterfly."

Junpei slumped back against the wall. "And I missed it. I have the worst luck..."

"Yes, but if you and Kouichi hadn't got caught by those Candlemon I wouldn't have discovered my Spirit." Izumi smiled down at him. "Thank you, Junpei."

Junpei blushed. "Er...I..."

"What, we missed another Evolution?" Bokomon and Neemon came out of the tunnel. Bokomon looked ready to eat metal and spit out nails in rage. "Neemon, you idiot! If you hadn't got caught by their sleep powder, we would have seen the whole thing."

"You can see her the next time I Evolve." Izumi put her hands on her hips. "The question is, now what do we do? Are we going to stay here for the night, or try and find some other place?"

"Well, it's not like the Candlemon are still here." Kouichi looked around. "Did you scan them all?"

"I hope so. If there's any left they probably won't bother us, but just in case..." Takuya held up his Digivice. "I think we should have someone who can Evolve on night watch."

Well, if it was everyone who could Evolve, then I didn't need to stand there and listen to them bicker about who got which watch. I turned and walked back into the cave. It had been a long day, after all. And almost getting killed several times hadn't helped. Now that the rush from all that was fading, I felt exhausted. I went back to the main cavern to find a nice dark spot in one corner of the main cavern to curl up and close my eyes. I could hear the sounds of the others entering the cavern, but ignored them.

"Move over, little brother. I'm gonna sleep here, too."

I opened my eyes to glare at Kouichi, who was lying down beside me.

"There _are _other places you can sleep, you know. It's a big room."

"I know." He didn't move though. I was sorely tempted to move myself, but I was too tired. Besides, if I did, Kouichi would probably just follow me. The best I could do was roll over so my back was to him. Which I did.

"Been some day, huh?"

This was exactly why I hadn't wanted to be anywhere near Kouichi. I didn't want to talk about how my day was, I just wanted to sleep! I closed my eyes and tried to relax. The last thing I heard was my brother's voice.

"G'night, Kouji."

**Author's note: Italian translation time! "Maledizione" means something like "Curses," and is a mild Italian swearword. "Codardo" means "Coward."**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Something strange woke me up. In my sleepy state, it was hard to pinpoint what was different. Chibi, my pet canary-Chibi wasn't singing like he usually did at dawn. And then I realized I wasn't even in my bed...

I sat up as the events of the previous day returned to me in full force. That was right, I wasn't at home. We were in the Digital World, to save it from someone called Cherubimon. I stretched, feeling a little stiff from sleeping on the ground. Come to think about it, I couldn't remember the last time I hadn't slept in my bed. No, wait. There was that time a few years ago when the car had broken down at night when we'd been coming home from a friend of Dad's. By the time Dad had been able to get a tow truck, I'd fallen asleep in the back seat. It had been not too long before he'd married Satomi, which would make it just over three years ago.

Thoughts of Satomi brought feelings of guilt for not being able to get her flowers for her anniversary. I could only imagine her panic when I hadn't come home the night before. Dad, too. They probably would have called the police by now...Maybe they even called Mom. Kouichi was here too, after all.

I felt even more guilt at not being able to go home yet, but if the Digital World needed me, then I _couldn't _go home. I sighed and looked around. The torches which surrounded the cavern we were in were nearly out, but there was just enough light that I could see the others still asleep on the floor. Kouichi was sprawled asleep next to me, his lips moving a little. A dream? Probably.

The dim light from the torches wasn't enough to read by. I picked up my backpack and walked out to the tunnel. On the way out, I noticed a large hole in the wall. That hadn't been there the last time, had it? I thought about it for a second. It was at about the point where Izumi's Spirit had come from last night. It might have been buried in the wall and burst out when we'd needed it. That would explain why the Candlemon hadn't noticed it.

The tunnel's gloom quickly gave way to bright sunlight, as well as Takuya's loud snoring. He was leaning against the wall of the canyon outside, fast asleep. Wasn't he supposed to be on guard duty? I shook my head and moved as far away as I could while still staying in sight and pulled out my book.

About half an hour later, the others started awakening. Izumi came out of the cave to chew Takuya out for falling asleep when he was supposed to be on watch. _Loudly_. Takuya argued back, of course. _He _said that he _tried _to tell Izumi he wasn't a night owl last night, but she hadn't listened to him. I kept my nose in the book, hoping that they would shut _up_!

"Kouji?" Izumi had stopped arguing with Takuya long enough to notice me. "I didn't even notice you. What are you doing out here?"

I didn't look up from my book. "Reading."

"Yeah, I know that, but...You're so quiet I didn't even notice you were gone."

I simply shrugged. That was the point. If nobody noticed me, nobody could bother me. Luckily the others were distracted when Kouichi came out of the cave.

"Hey, Bokomon's got the fire going, and we're roasting the rest of the apples. You'd better come and get some before the others get them all." He noticed me. "Kouji, so _that's _where you got to. Good, I was getting worried."

So much for not getting noticed.

Still, I _was _getting hungry. I reluctantly put my book away and shuffled back into the cave after the others.

The fire was once again burning merrily as the others put apples on sticks to roast them. I took an apple for myself, but instead of joining the group, I moved to the other side of the fire to read by its' light. I could hear the others talking and laughing, especially Kouichi. Ironic how one brother could get along with everyone, but the other one pulled away from the world.

Once we were all finished with the apples, we set out for the Forest Terminal again. It didn't take us long to find a way up the other side of the canyon, then to find the train tracks to follow. I think it was about a half-hour later that we stumbled into a problem.

"Which way do we go?" Tomoki asked, eyeing the split track. "Bokomon, do you know?"

Bokomon flipped frantically through his book. "I have no idea. This doesn't say anything about the track splitting, just that the Forest Terminal is down one set of tracks." He then realized that Neemon was looking at the book over his shoulder.

"Back off. I don't think you can even _read _this!" He pulled Neemon's pants back and "snapped" them, causing Neemon to dance around in agony.

"Well, I think this is the right way." Takuya pointed to the left fork. "I mean, it looks like the other way was put in later, so this _has _to be the right way."

I didn't think the left fork looked like it led to anything other than more of the same deserted cliffs and canyons we'd seen since we got here. The right fork on the other hand had something at the end. I wasn't sure if they were trees or not, but they looked far more welcoming than more desert.

"I don't think that's the right way." Izumi's feelings apparently mirrored my own. "I think I can see trees where the other track's going."

"Are you crazy? Just because there's trees there doesn't mean it's where we're supposed to go. It's obvious that the left one'sthe right way."

"We're going to the _Forest _Terminal, aren't we? I don't see any forests over there."

Kouichi got between Takuya and Izumi before the arguing could escalate any further. "Okay, you two. Calm down. Here, why don't we put it to a vote? Who's for the left fork?

Takuya, Tomoki, and Neemon raised their hands.

"And, who's for the right?" Kouichi, Izumi, Bokomon, and after a moment Junpei raised their hands. I suspected that Junpei was going along with whichever choice Izumi took. I didn't vote myself, although I agreed with Izumi. I just preferred to stay out of it. Kouichi gave me an odd look, but didn't say anything about it.

"Well, it looks like the right fork wins." Kouichi shrugged.

"No fair, Kouji didn't vote. We don't know which one he wanted." Takuya couldn't leave well enough alone, could he?

"Well, he clearly didn't want to go with _you_." Izumi glared at him. "I think he would've been fine with whatever we chose and just didn't feel like voting, right Kouji?"

I looked down. That was probably the best way to put it.

"Now that that's all settled, let's get moving." Kouichi started following the tracks on the right.

"_Oh_, no. I'm not taking the _wrong _way." Takuya turned to the left fork. "Don't come crying to _me _when you find out you're wrong."

"Takuya, wait up!" Tomoki took off after them. Neemon started to go after them, but Bokomon grabbed him by the edge of his pants.

Kouichi stopped, realizing that we weren't all behind him. "Wait, we can't get split up like this!"

"We're _not_. We're just going to be split up until you guys realize you're going the wrong way!" Takuya called back. Izumi shook her head.

"Or until theyrealize _they're _going the wrong way. He's a real blockhead."

"I guess..." Kouichi still looked uneasy at the thought of splitting up.

Izumi smiled. "They'll be back. You'll see."

"I know." Kouichi flashed that blinding grin at her. "Let's go."

The green blur on the edge of my vision eventually revealed itself to be a forest. The closer we came, the bigger the trees got. Soon the trees were bigger than some buildings.

"They remind me of those redwood trees in America," Junpei remarked at one point.

"You've been to America, Junpei?" Kouichi asked.

"Once. My Mom had relatives out there, and we went to visit them last year."

"You're lucky. I've never been out of the prefecture before, let alone the country. What's America like?"

"Really strange, actually. The time zones are different, so that our day is their night, And English is a very hard language to learn...I'm glad I was only there for a few days, and that Mom's relatives could translate."

"Italy's like that too, with the language." Izumi said. "It took me months to learn to speak it...And by the time I got back here, I had forgotten nearly all my Japanese! Why, I..." Her voice trailed off in surprise, and she stopped walking. So did the others. I took this to mean they had spied something up ahead, and took my eyes off the ground for the first time in a while. There were walkways spiraling around the trees up ahead. And it looked like there was someone, or more likely _many _someones living there.

"Is that the Forest Terminal?" Junpei asked.

Kouichi started walking faster. "Let's check it out."

The train tracks went right through the trees, with a station-like platform at one point. The sign above the platform read "_Soyokaze Village_."

"It sounds like a nice kind of place," Izumi said. She would, since _Soyokaze _meant "_Gentle Breeze_."

"It's famous for being near the jewel tree." Bokomon flipped through his book. "There's a famous tree not far away that has a enormous diamond stuck in its' trunk. Legend says that the tree grew up under the diamond, then somehow fused around it. There, you can see it!"

Sure enough, there was a tree off in the distance which gleamed in the sunlight. I had to shade my eyes to see the diamond in the trunk.

"It's one of the wonders of the Digital World," Bokomon continued. "I wonder if they'll let me see it up close."

Soyokaze village consisted of battered, crumbling small buildings in the branches, linked by the walkways we had seen earlier. There were some small houses on the ground, in a loose circle around a central area. Most of them were too small for humans, which meant that the inhabitants were probably small. It took me a minute to see them, a bunch of waist-high plant creatures going about their business.

"Bokomon, what are those guys?" Kouichi asked.

"They're called Floramon. They're gentle, meek Digimon who live peaceful lives. We have nothing to fear."

As we got closer, the Floramon noticed us, and gathered in and around the central area, watching us warily. Kouichi stepped forward with that blinding grin on his face.

"It's okay, we won't hurt you. Do you know where the Forest Terminal is?"

"I-it's about a day's walk east," one of the Floramon said. "J-just follow the train track and it'll take you there."

"I _told _Takuya they were going the wrong way." Izumi crossed her arms. "I suppose we should find some place to wait for them."

"Maybe we can wait here?" Kouichi turned to the Floramon. "We have some friends who went the wrong way. Would it be possible for us to stay here until we find them?"

The Floramon hesitated.

"I promise we won't stay very long." Kouichi grinned disarmingly. "Just a few hours."

"You can stay," the Floramon who had spoken earlier said. "But, please be careful. Our village isn't made for big creatures like humans. The bridges won't hold your weight. Sometimes I'm surprised they can hold ours."

The Floramon was right when it said that the village wasn't created for humans. The walkways and bridges in the trees wouldn't hold our weight, so we couldn't go into the trees. Some of the bridges were rather rickety looking. The chairs and tables in the huts on the ground only came up to out knees. If any of us tried sitting on one, it would break for sure. That had happened to Dad once. He'd tried sitting on a chair I'd had as a little kid for a joke, and it had broke. Satomi had thought it was hilarious. Dad had, after a while, laughed at it, too.

So the only place we could really sit was the ground. Still, the Floramon were decent hosts, offering us refreshments. I wasn't particularly hungry, and after a long time of being around the others, I just wanted to be by myself for a while. I slipped off to find a shady spot under a tree that was far enough away from the others that they wouldn't bother me, then pulled out a book to read.

About half an hour later, Kouichi approached me with a small plate of food and a smaller cup of liquid.

"Hey, little brother. How're you doing?"

I pointedly ignored him. Kouichi still had no idea that when I wanted to be alone, I wanted to be _alone_.

"Brought you some food. The Floramon made it themselves."

I lowered my book a bit. "Thanks."

"I hope you like salad...They're vegetarians." Kouichi put the plate down next to me. "I brought you some water, too. Whatever you do, do _not _drink what the Floramon made...They made some kind of drink out of their snot. I _had _to ask them what it was made of." He smirked a little. "If I hadn't been drinking that stuff, the looks on the others' faces would have been hilarious."

I glared at him and picked up my book again.

"Okay, I get the hint." The enthusiasm in his voice faded a little. "Sorry."

I listened to Kouichi's steps fading away. Sure, I was acting somewhat cold towards him, but I didn't really want to talk to him at that point.

Suddenly, there was a shrill shriek from above me, and I looked up to realize that one of the bridges between two walkways had broken under the weight of a Floramon. It dangled from the remains of one half, holding on for dear life. I dropped my book and quickly got to my feet, wondering if there was anything I could do to save it. In the end, I didn't have to do anything.

"_Spirit...Evolution_!" I looked over at where the others were sitting to see the Digicode swirling around Izumi. An instant later, she was the fairy-like Digimon again.

"..._Fairymon_!"

"That's Izumi?" Junpei asked in a shocked voice. "She's so beautiful..."

"She's a Legendary Warrior, what did you expect?" Bokomon pulled out his book. "Legendary Warrior of the Wind, Fairymon. Her attacks are _Brezza Petallo_ and _Tornado Gamba_."

Fairymon flew up to rescue the stranded Floramon, bringing the terrified creature gently down to the ground. They were immediately surrounded by grateful Floramon as Fairymon de-Evolved back to being Izumi.

"It was nothing..." Izumi managed to say, as she gingerly stepped free of the group and over to where the others were.

"Izumi, you were awesome!" Junpei's eyes sparkled with enthusiasm. I relaxed a little. Now that the crisis was over, I could get back to my book. I went back to my spot under the tree and picked up the book again.

I was just finishing the book up an hour or so later when Kouichi once again approached me.

"Have you seen Bokomon?"

"No. Should I have?"

Kouichi took off his hat and ran a hand through his short hair. "He went to look at the jewel tree after Izumi saved that Floramon. He should have been back by now."

"Did you ask Neemon? They usually hang out together."

"We're talking about _Neemon_, remember? He's so scatterbrained that he didn't even remember that Bokomon left."

"Oh."

"Look, if you see him, tell him to check in on me, would you?" Kouichi put his hat back on.

"Right."

About twenty minutes after that, I was once again interrupted, this time by all three of the other humans. Going by the worried expressions on their faces, I guessed the news wasn't good. I mentally sighed and put down my book.

"I'm guessing you haven't found Bokomon yet?"

Junpei crossed his arms. "It's worse than that, now Neemon's missing. We think he might have left the village to try and find Bokomon."

"We need to search for _both _of them now." Izumi added. "The Floramon are afraid to leave the village, since there might be something that can hurt them out there so it's just us who _can _search for them."

We walked outside of the village, to the path which, according to the Floramon, led to the jewel tree.

"We're going to have to cover both sides of the path," Izumi remarked. "Why don't we split up into pairs, and meet back in the village in an hour?"

Junpei's eyes lit up. "Izumi, would you like to go with me?"

She rolled her eyes. "Junpei, this is serious!"

"I...I know, but..."

"You can go with her," Kouichi said. "Kouji and I'll take the left side of the path, you guys can take the right."

"Thanks a _lot_, Kouichi." Izumi grumbled. He merely smirked at her.

"Any time."

The search was pretty much fruitless. After about an hour of unsuccessfully trying to find our wayward companions, we decided to head back to the village to see if the others had any luck.

"You know something?" Kouichi asked at one point. "I think the Floramon are hiding something. I mean, there's what, thirty of them there? And yet, _none _of them saw Neemon leaving."

"We can't jump to conclusions, you know." I told him. "Maybe they were just busy repairing that bridge, and didn't notice."

"Oh, I'm sure an entire _village _was busy repairing one bridge."

"I don't know, okay Kouichi? Besides, we only _think _Neemon left the village to try and find Bokomon. I said we can't jump to conclusions. All I know is that our friends are missing...And that we have to be careful."

The Floramon hadn't been idle while we were searching. They had been searching their village for any sign of Neemon. We stood there by the village entrance waiting for Izumi and Junpei, listening to the Floramon report, one by one, that they hadn't seen any sign of Neemon. Kouichi didn't take the negative responses well. He was acting utterly unlike the way he usually acted, I thought. Normally he seemed to be all bright smiles and cheerful chatter, but now he was glaring and scowling at the Floramon, who huddled as far away from us as they safely could.

It was when the twentieth Floramon brought the news of its' failure to find Neemon that Kouichi exploded.

"What do you _mean_, you can't find him?" He picked the unfortunate Floramon up and brought it to eye level. "I _know _you guys are hiding something! Now, stop playing games, or..."

This was going _too _far. I put a hand to my brother's shoulder.

"Put him down, Kouichi. You aren't making things any better by hurting him."

Kouichi glared at me, then dropped the Floramon, who scurried over to join his friends as quickly as possible. I had to get Kouichi away from the Floramon before anyone _else _got hurt.

"C'mon, let's go see if Junpei and Izumi found anything."

I grabbed him by the arm before he could object and pulled him outside the village. Once we were out of earshot, I let go.

"You need to calm down, Kouichi. I don't think they'll want to tell you _anything _if you keep threatening them like that."

"You don't _get _it, do you Kouji? They acted all nice welcoming us into their village, just like the Candlemon. They're taking us down, one at a time until there's nobody left."

"Or maybe it's not the Floramon that made Neemon and Bokomon disappear but someone else."

"Like who?"

"I don't know."

"That's a _lot _of help."

"We just got to this world yesterday, Kouichi. There's a lot we don't know about it. I _told _you we can't jump to conclusions!"

"We can't sit here doing _nothing_! If we sit here moaning about all the poor Floramon, they get another change to strike!"

There was a panting sound from up ahead. I saw Junpei stagger out from the brush, flushed from the effort of running.

"Junpei, what..." Kouichi began.

"Izumi. She...I only had my back turned for a minute..."

Kouichi's face drained of all color.

"She disappeared, too?" I asked quietly.

Junpei nodded glumly. The woebegone expression on his face would have been funnier if the situation hadn't been so serious.

"I asked her if we should Spirit Evolve earlier, but she said that since Neemon and Bokomon are so short, it might be easier to search for them on the ground than in the air. I wish we _had _evolved!"

"We should have all stayed together," Kouichi's voice shook with rage. "If we'd gone with Takuya and Tomoki, we'd all be together now!"

"Look, it happened, we can't change that." I told him. "We just need to stay together. They've got to be out there, and alive. The Floramon would have seen an egg float off if Neemon or Bokomon had gotten scanned, right? We have to stay together and keep searching."

"The Floramon are in on this, I _know _it. We need to go and _make _them tell us where they hid the others."

"Kouichi, are you okay?" Junpei asked suddenly. "I know I haven't known you for very long, but you're normally a lot more pleasant than _this_."

He had voiced the very question that I'd wanted to ask...That I _should _have asked when Neemon went missing. I cursed myself for not asking him earlier.

Kouichi's eyes dropped to the ground, then closed.

"It's easy for me to make friends, but it's the hardest thing for me to lose them. Even if I've only known them for a day. It's one thing if they're going to go away for a few hours, like Takuya and Tomoki. But when someone I know just _vanishes_..." He spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness. "It might not have been the Floramon. If it's not, I owe them an apology. But someone's behind all this. Someone has Izumi, Neemon, and Bokomon...And I can't rest until they're safe."

"Wow..." Junpei cleared his throat. "A-anyways, we'd better get back to searching for them. We were near the jewel tree when I lost sight of Izumi. Maybe whatever took them is there."

The jewel tree was about the same size as the trees around it. The only differences between it and the others was the huge diamond embedded in the trunk, and that the brush had been cleared out from under it.

"We were over there, by those bushes." Junpei pointed out a bunch of scrubby bushes "She was standing right there. I tripped over a root, and when I looked up, she was gone."

"Where was the root?" Kouichi asked. He walked over to the place Junpei indicated, then knelt down to take a good look. I joined him.

"There isn't any root here, but I see a hole...I wonder if that's where it _used _to be." Kouichi pulled some of the grass back from the hole. "I don't think you tripped by accident, Junpei."

There was no response. I looked up to the spot where he had been to see that it was empty.

"_H_-_he's _gone too, isn't he?" Kouichi's voice had none of the confidence he usually had. I turned to see that he had his hands on his head, eyes wide as he shook. "Everyone keeps leaving me...No matter what I do or how much I love them..."

I got to my feet, only to have Kouichi grab my hand.

"Don't leave me! _Please_!" His voice caught on a sob.

"I wasn't. I think we should go back to the village, before anything else happens."

He didn't release my hand. "Don't leave me _alone_..." A soft whisper, but the fear in his voice made me pause. What did he mean by _that_? That was when I remembered him saying something about following his grandmother's last wishes the day before we'd come to the Digital World. His grandmother had died, then. Or was dying. I didn't know. If his grandmother had died recently, then what he'd said about everyone _leaving _him made sense.

I turned to face him. "I'm not leaving you, Kouichi. You promised to stay with me until we got home, right? That goes for me, too. I'm staying with you."

Kouichi looked up at me, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"R-really?"

I stuck up my finger like I'd seen him doing the other day.

"This is how you do it, right? The 'Pinky promise?'"

His eyes widened, and he took his hand off mine, extending his own pinky. Then his body suddenly jerked, like something was pulling him. I didn't stop to think. I grabbed his still-extended hand, and we were _both _pulled along, or in my case _dragged _along, by whatever had grabbed him. We went flying through the air and towards the jewel tree. Before we could crash into it however a hole opened up in the trunk, swallowing both of us before closing. I landed on a hard, stump-like floor hard enough to knock the breath out of me for a minute.

"_Kouji_!"

Kouichi was just in front of me, bound by a rope-like root which seemed to be growing around him, in spite of his frantic struggling. The root was almost to his mouth. I gasped in horror and pulled myself to my feet to grab the root, but while I could stop it from covering his mouth I couldn't break it. The root started growing around my _own _hand, causing me to yelp and pull my hand away. Desparate, I looked around. Maybe there was something I could use to break the root. A rock, or something...

"Kouji! _Look out!" _

I looked down to see another root growing around my feet. I tried to move, but it was too late. The root held me securely enough that all I could do was fall over.

"Don't bother fighting back, _human_. The more you struggle, the tighter the root grows." A nasty laugh followed this. I felt a chill of terror shiver down my spine, and stopped struggling. That voice hadn't sounded like it cared if I lived or died, and I wasn't about to dig myself in deeper. I couldn't do anything other than look around, trying to find out what had kidnapped us.

We were in a large cavern within the trunk of the tree. There was light, something I hadn't noticed when trying to rescue Kouichi. It was coming from what looked like the diamond in the cavern's roof. The gem probably reflected the sun's light through the interior of the tree, casting a spotlight-like beam down on us and leaving the rest of the cavern in shadow There were several creatures moving around in the shadows. I looked harder, seeing Junpei, Izumi, Neemon, and Bokomon. All of whom were bound in the same manner that my brother and I were, although the roots had covered their mouths**...**

"Leave my brother alone!" Kouichi started struggling harder than before, which had the effect of making the root grow tighter around him.

I cringed. "Kouichi, stop! That's not going to work..." The vine crawled around my mouth, cutting off my words. All I could do was watch my brother stuggle even harder.

"I promised I'd protect you, little brother. I'm gonna keep that promise...!" As soon as he'd said that, his Digivice lit up in his pocket. Overhead, the light from the diamond got brighter and brighter until I finally had to close my eyes. As I did however I felt the root around me loosen, then pull off me.

"A Spirit..." I opened my eyes again at Kouichi's voice, squinting against the brightness. The light had freed my brother, too. He was standing directly under the light with his Digivice held out. Sure enough, there was another one of those statue-like objects materializing out of that bright light. Had it been hidden in the diamond? It turned into data, and went into his Digivice.

"_Commozione_!" I sat up to see Izumi and the others had also been freed by the light. She and Junpei pulled their Digivices out as the ring of data appeared around Kouichi's hand.

_"Spirit...Evolution!"_

The light around my brother grew and swirled around him, making me throw a hand in front of my face. What emerged looked like something out of one of my fantasy books. A wolf-themed knight in glowing metallic silver armor.

"..._Wolfmon_!"

"The Legendary Warrior of Light, Wolfmon!" Bokomon, who now had his book out, made his way to my side as Izumi and Junpei also Evolved. The three of them now stood, or hovered, in a protective circle around me, Neemon, and Bokomon. "His attacks are _Licht Sieger _and _Licht Kugel_. His swords are made of pure light concentrated into two glowing blades."

The light from the diamond expanded, giving us all long shadows. It also had the effect of exposing our enemies, showing them to be three tree-like creatures.

"What are _those_?" I asked.

Bokomon flipped some pages in his books. "They're Woodmon. They can blend in to any tree-like surface...Which was how they captured me."

"Everyone else, too." Neemon added helpfully.

The Woodmon shrank back into the remaining shadows, but the light didn't stop them from attacking the others when they tried going after them.

"_Branch Drill_!" The Woodmon swung their wooden limbs like clubs. Wolfmon and the others dodged them, or in Wolfmon's case parried the limb with a sword. One of the Woodmon plunged its' roots into the ground beneath it; an instant later, the root smashed out of the ground a foot from where Fairymon was.

"_Brezza Petallo!"_ Fairymon sliced the root with a blast of wind, then prepared to launch another blast of wind at the Woodmon himself, only to have the Woodmon move back to the wall behind it and vanish.

"_Brezza_...Huh? Where'd it..." She got no further as another branch hit her from behind.

"Fairymon!" Blitzmon tried to attack the Woodmon who had hit her, only to have it once again blend into the tree and vanish.

"You okay?" Blitzmon asked.

Fairymon rubbed her back sourly. "I'll be fine. Let's just beat these guys."

"But, how do we _see _them?" Wolfmon asked. "Every time I try hitting one, he goes into the wall and I lose him."

"I _told _you, they can blend into any tree-like surface." Bokomon said irritably.

"That doesn't explain how we beat these guys," Fairymon pointed out.

She was right. The Woodmon were too hard to fight inside the jewel tree. Getting out of the tree probably wouldn't help either, since we were in a forest. What could we do? I looked down at the ground. It wasn't like I could Evolve to help...Wait, hadn't the roots that had bound us gone away when the light had hit them? That was it!

"They don't like the light!" I realized out loud. "If we can make it even brighter, they won't be able to hide!"

The others paused, then Wolfmon held up his sword. It started shining, growing bright enough that I had a hard time seeing again, and had to shield my face with an arm. The Woodmon shrieked in pain, trying in vain to scrabble back from the light. Wolfmon held up his arm, revealing a small laser cannon.

"_Licht Kugel_!" He cried, aiming at one of the Woodmon.

Blitzmon held up a sparking fist. "_Mjolinir Thunder_!"

"_Brezza Petallo_!" Fairymon threw a blast of wind. All three attacks hit the Woodmon, and rings of Digicode rose out of them.

Wolfmon held up his Digivice. "Evil souls, be purified by my Digivice! Digicode, _scan_!"

The digicode disappeared into his Digivice as the Woodmon disintegrated into eggs, which floated off through the ceiling. I wondered where the eggs went when they were scanned. Maybe later I could ask Bokomon about it. The others shimmered, then shrank back into their human forms.

"Is everyone okay?" Izumi asked.

"I don't know about the rest of you, but _I'm _feeling much better." Kouichi flung his arms around Junpei and Izumi. "It's great to see you guys again. I was really worried, y'know." That dazzling grin was back on his face again, I noticed. He looked over at me.

"And I need to thank you too, Kouji."

I looked down at the ground, feeling my face grow hot.

"It...Was nothing. You don't have to thank me. You're the ones who defeated the Woodmon."

"What are you saying?" Kouichi's voice grew closer until he was standing next to me. "You didn't do any actual fighting, but you saved us all." His voice dropped to an undertone. "Especially me. Thank you, Kouji."

"How are we going to get out of here, anyways?" Junpei asked. "There's no door, and I don't want to just blast our way out." From the stricken looks on the others' faces, I guessed that they hadn't thought about that.

Bokomon pulled out his book again. "Try the Digivice." He said. "If the Woodmon were living here, there's a good chance they were had the tree's Digicode on them."

Kouichi shrugged and pulled out his Digivice. "It's worth a try. It worked for the Flame Terminal and the tracks last night." A stream of Digicode to flow out of his Digivice, going through tree's wall and transforming it into an arching doorway to the outside. I could see the Digicode moving on towards the village.

"Well, that certainly did it," Kouichi remarked. "Let's get out of here. I gotta work on my apology to the Floramon."

Kouichi, it turned out, didn't have to work on his apology _too _hard. The data from scanning the Woodmon had fixed Soyokaze Village up, reinforcing their bridges so they didn't have to worry about anyone else falling off. Besides, as Bokomon pointed out the Floramon were so gentle-natured that I think they didn't even know the meaning of the _word _"grudge."

I watched Kouichi talk to the Floramon, all bright grins and happy laughter again. Maybe it was just me, but it felt like there was another Kouichi lying just under the surface, another him that had briefly shown itself to me earlier when the others had disappeared. Why did I feel that way, I wondered. Was it because we were twins?

A Floramon came down from the higher platforms to tell us that it had spotted two more humans heading for the village.

"Sounds like Takuya and Tomoki _finally _made it here," Junpei remarked.

"About time," Izumi crossed her arms. "Honestly, I was beginning to think those two had gotten lost or something."

Takuya and Tomoki entered the village a few minutes later. They were worn out and covered in sweat.

"What took you so long?" Izumi asked them teasingly. "Did you lose the train tracks or something?"

Takuya glared at her. "Shut up, Izumi."

"We had some trouble with the ground beneath us collapsing...We couldn't go any further, so we decided to find you guys." Tomoki sank gratefully to the grass.

"As much as I hate to say it, it's a good thing you guys came when you did," Izumi told them. "We had trouble with some talking trees. If Kouichi hadn't found his Spirit..."

"Wait, _Kouichi _found a Spirit?" Takuya looked over at my brother.

"Yes, and he..."

"That's so cool!" Tomoki exclaimed. "What does he Evolve to?"

"I was getting to that..."

"What element is he?" Takuya didn't notice the fact that Izumi was now scowling. At least, he didn't until she irritably grabbed both him and Tomoki in a headlock.

"I can't tell you the story if you two keep _interrupting _me! Now shut up and listen!"

Takuya struggled in her grip. "Izumi, I can't listen to you if you've got me like this!"

"Maybe that will teach you to not interrupt her!" Kouichi called. Everyone laughed as she let Takuya and Tomoki go and started her story again. Since they were all huddled together to hear what had happened, I decided they wouldn't miss me, and slipped off to a quiet spot at the other end of the village to read a bit. As I pulled out my book, I couldn't help thinking about what has happened today. Four of us had Spirits now. Tomoki and I both had Digivices, so it made sense that we would get them, too. What would I get?

And what about the other four?


End file.
